At 4.46 p.m. on 5th August, 1967, the coastguard told the honorary secretary that a yacht had been reported firing red flares five miles south of the Needles.

The life-boat The Earl and Countess Howe slipped her moorings at 4.57 in a fresh south westerly wind and a choppy sea.

The tide was flooding. The casualty, the yacht Seagull of Cowes, with four persons on board was found at 6.12 with a broken rudder. She was taken in tow to Yarmouth and the life-boat returned to her moorings at 7.20..