At 7.35 pm the inshore lifeboat was on its way to the capsized catamaran, arriving on scene at 7.41 pm. There they found that the three catamaran crewmen had been catapulted into the water but were in the process of being plucked from the sea by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club (RCYC) safety Rigid Inflatable (RIB). Fortunately they were all wearing lifejackets. With the MTS Agility standing by to render assistance if necessary, the inshore lifeboat attempted to attach a line to the catamaran in an effort to right it. This proved too difficult, as, having succeeded in attaching a line, they did not have the power to right the catamaran. This prompted them to call for the all weather lifeboat, a much more powerful vessel, to provide assistance. At 8.15 pm the all weather lifeboat arrived on scene and successfully righted the catamaran and proceeded to tow it back to harbour.

Whilst carrying out this task, at 9.15 pm the all weather lifeboat was called to investigate the 20ft yacht Listen, that appeared to be out of control some 6 miles out to sea, near the anchored heavily laden tanker, Solviken from Norway. Arriving at the scene at 9.29 pm they found that the yacht was indeed out of control, with its sails unattended and hanging in the water. Because the sea state was too rough to go alongside the yacht the lifeboat launched its ‘Y’ boat, a small inflatable with an outboard engine, carried for this sort of event, and ferried a lifeboat crew member across to the yacht to asses the situation. There he found the single occupant totally exhausted and unable to control his vessel. It is understood that he was sailing from Falmouth across the channel to France.

The lifeboat crew transferred the lone yachtsman to the all weather lifeboat where he was medically checked over by the first aid trained crew, then made comfortable whilst the rest of the crew set about attaching a towline to the stricken yacht to tow it back into harbour. They finally arrived at 11.45 pm where they deposited the yacht and were released back to base some 8 minutes later. There the very lucky but exhausted yachtsman was given a cup of tea by the crew, whilst he thanked them for his rescue.

Notes to editors
• The Inshore Lifeboat volunteers for this service were: Marc Thomas (Helmsman); Diane Bush and Toni Partridge.
• The All Weather Lifeboat was crewed by: Mark Pollard (Coxswain); John Blakestone; Snowy Angove; Alan Rowe; Nick Lewis; Andy Jenkins and John Jeeves.
• Some video footage was taken and has been made available to TV stations. Still images of the two rescues may be available later once all the footage has been edited.