Stricken yacht 'battered by 40mph winds' and its crew rescued 20 miles off the coast of Fleetwood by RNLI heroes

A yacht was found 20 miles off the coast of Fleetwood and towed back to land by a lifeboat team from RNLI Fleewood in an early morning mission after getting into trouble.

By Nicola Jaques

Published 24th May 2020, 12:30 BST

Updated 24th May 2020, 12:38 BST

The vessel was travelling from Plymouth when it sent an SOS north of Rhyl in North Wales on Thursday night.

A Welsh lifeboat was launched to find the yacht, but a later telephone call revealed it had drifted north towards the Fylde coast, wand the Fleetwood team launched a lifeboat at 5.25am on Friday.

The volunteers found the stricken boat near to the off-shore wind farm, 20 miles from port, being battered by 40mph winds.

It was being monitored by an off-shore supply tugboat, Vos Pathfinder, an RNLI spokesman said.

“The lifeboat was able to tow it back to base through the heavy seas,” he said.

“She was handed over to Fleetwood Coastguard at Fleetwood Marina at around midday – six hours after the lifeboat launched.”

All the crew were reported as safe, with no injuries sustained.

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