A Sailing Dinghy (1)
TRAPPED UNDER SAIL Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. At 3.45 p.m. on nth April, 1965, the coastguard informed the honorary secretary that a sailing dinghy had capsized between Brean Down and Cable Beacon.
The life-boat Calouste Gulbenkian was launched at 4 p.m. in a strong southwesterly breeze and a very rough sea. The tide was ebbing. Two men were clinging to the upturned dinghy, and a third man was trapped under the sail.
A helicopter had been called out from R.A.F. Chivenor and when the life-boat arrived a man had been lowered from the helicopter to raise the sail. The helicopter moved clear and the life-boat went in and picked up the three men. Mouth to mouth resuscitation was applied to the man who had been trapped under the sail.
The men were landed at Weston-super- Mare at 4.45 and conveyed by ambulance to hospital, but the man who had been trapped under the sail never regained consciousness. His widow made a donation to the Institution's funds, and in response to her request donations were made instead of floral tributes for her husband's funeral..