Swansea coastguard received a Mayday call from a 26foot fishing vessel taking in water off Nash Sands in the Bristol Channel. Porthcawl’s RNLI Atlantic 85 ‘Rose of the Shires’ was launched at 08.38 to assist the 4 persons on board the vessel which was in immediate danger of sinking following engine failure which had blown a hole through the hull.
RNLI spokesperson, Ian Stroud said, ‘We were requested to launch just after 08.30 this morning. Our crew with a pump on board were on scene in less than ten minutes from launch and quickly got the pump onboard the casualty vessel; all four people on board were safe and well. Once the ingress of water was reduced and the flooding brought under control the fishing vessel was taken in tow heading back towards Cardiff Bay‘.
Barry Dock RNLI all weather lifeboat was launched just after 09.00 to take over the tow east of Nash point. They took three of the fishermen on board the lifeboat and continued the tow to Cardiff’.
Porthcawl Lifeboat Operations Manager, Philip Missen MBE said, ‘Fortunately the weather this morning was very good and the sea was calm otherwise the situation the fishermen found themselves in could have been far more dangerous’.
