Crew Recognised After Brave Rescue

The volunteer crew of Port St Mary lifeboat have been celebrated for a rescue which saw one of them awarded a medal for gallantry,

Richard Leigh was awarded the RNLI Bronze Medal for Gallantry for his role in the rescue of a yacht in November 2021.

On November 6 2021, the volunteer crews of both the all–weather and the inshore lifeboat were paged at 6am, launching into a rough sea and a force five wind, gusting seven with an increasing three metre swell to the casualty which had caught its propeller and rudder on a lobster pot rope in the darkness close to the Carrick beacon.

The all-weather Trent Class lifeboat Gough Ritchie II under the command of Mike Keggen and the D Class Inshore lifeboat Spirit of Leicester with Richard Leigh at the helm, assessed the situation and agreed that the all-weather lifeboat was unable to get close to the yacht but would offer shelter for the inshore lifeboat to enable the smaller boat go alongside to take the yachtsmen off.

The yacht was held firm by the lobster pot rope and an anchor, but due to the conditions either could have parted and that would have resulted in the yacht landing on the Carrick and the yachtsmen on the rocks. Having agreed the evacuation procedure between the lifeboats, the instructions were conveyed to the yachtsmen who were wearing lifejackets and had prepared emergency bags and had not suffered any injuries.

The conditions continued to deteriorate and on the first run in, one yachtsman was recovered and transferred to the all–weather lifeboat. The inshore lifeboat then returned to evacuate the other two yachtsmen, by which time the deck of the yacht was, at times, towering above the inshore lifeboat. The volunteer crew chose the moment to instruct the yachtsmen to slide down into the inshore lifeboat and be transferred to the all-weather lifeboat.

The yachtsmen knew what they were doing. They had sensibly called for help early. They knew their lives were in the balance.

Sir John and Lady Lorrimer and full crew and the other of the Award recipients.

 Without delay, the lifeboat crews headed for the safe harbour.

For superb boat handling, seamanship and courage, Richard Leigh has been awarded the RNLI Bronze Medal for Gallantry. Coxswain Mike Keggen, Mechanic Gareth Watt, Lifeboat Operations Manager Sarah Keggen and crew Members Laura Cordner, Daniel Grace, Chris Hill, Brian Kelly, Robert Marshall and Mark Pendlebury were awarded official commendations.

Richard stresses that this was a team effort, not only at sea, but everyone at the Station, the team at HM Coastguard, the fundraisers rattling buckets in Solihull and serving cups of tea in Edinburgh. It is one big effort from everybody.