Capsized motor cruiser AT 1150 ON FEBRUARY 22, Skipper Tony Meyler, on board MFV Western Seas lying alongside in Aberystwyth Harbour, was told by Peter Kokelaar that the motor cruiser Annabel II had just capsized in heavy surf near the harbour entrance. Aberystwyth ILB was tempo-rarily off service and it had been arranged by the station that Western Seas should act as standby boat for emergencies.

Telling his crew to prepare his boat for sea, Skipper Meyler ran up on to the promenade to ascertain the position of the casualty; she was lying upsidedown in a very heavy ground swell and surf with her bows pointing south west, about 150 yards west north west of the end of the north harbour arm and setting north-eastwards into shallow water. Survivors could not be seen and, knowing the vessel's layout, Tony Meyler assumed that her crew must be trapped in the wheelhouse. Western Seas sailed at 1153 with seven men on board, all but one of them ILB crew members.

The wind was offshore, south east force 5, and a very heavy ground swell, 12 to 14 feet high, was sweeping clear over the south harbour arm. Visibility was good and the sky overcast. It was about three quarters of an hour before high water, and the tidal stream was setting north north east at about 1 knot.

On arrival at the harbour entrance, Annabel II was seen, rising and falling on the ground swell, about 60 yards from the north arm and still drifting to the north east. Alan Blair, a volunteer crew member and senior inshore lifeboatman at Aberystwyth, having offered to swim on a line to the casualty to attempt an underwater search, Tony Meyler approached Annabel II and hove to about 80 to 90 feet to seaward of her, Wearing his ordinary clothing and an RNLI lifejacket, Alan Blair entered the water attached to a 2" polypropylene rope. He was tended from the stern of Western Seas by Keith Stone, joint owner of the fishing vessel and her regular crew and also an ILB crew member.

Alan Blair, hampered by his clothing, lifejacket and heavy surf, succeeded in reaching the casualty and banged on the up-turned hull, but there was no response. The time was 1200; more than ten minutes had passed since the capsize.

Regardless of his own safety, Alan Blair surface dived three or four times in an effort to see if the crew were trapped beneath the boat, but visibility was poor in the confused and shallow water. The violent movement of the boat prevented him from swimming under it. He continually banged the hull in the hope that the crew were trapped in an air space.

Using the bight of his safety line, Alan Blair tried to secure it to the foredeck cleat of the up-turned boat, but was prevented from doing so by the rise and fall and breaking surf. He eventually succeeded in securing the line to the boat's pulpit rail and passed the signal to Western Seas to start towing. The time was 1205.

Tony Meyler estimated that there was only about four feet of water beneath his boat when in the trough of the ground swell, and was relieved to receive the signal to start towing. Western Seas washeaded westward into the sea and began to tow Annabel II into deeper water but, shortly after the tow started, Tony Meyler was suddenly forced to increase speed to maintain steerage way as an exceptionally high breaking wave swept down on to Western Seas. The sudden increase in tension on the tow line tore the pulpit rail off Annabel H's foredeck.

Alan Blair, still attached to the line, was dragged through the water and became fouled by the pulpit rail.

Western Seas was stopped, Keith Stone slacked away on the tow line and Alan Blair was able to release himself from the line. With the line inboard, Tony Meyler took Western Seas in a round turn to port and hove to about 30 feet off the casualty. A lifebelt attached to a line was thrown to Alan Blair who was trying to swim towards the fishing vessel.

He was pulled back on board Western Seas at 1210, having been in the water for about 13 minutes at an estimated sea temperature of 46°F.

Western Seas stood off into calmer waters and it was the unanimous opinion of all on board that, with the casualty drifting north-eastwards towards the beach, there was little they could do, and that there was very little chance of finding anyone alive in Annabel II.

Returning to harbour at 1224 the crew of Western Seas went straight to the beach to help recover the casualty, which.

was almost ashore. She was pulled into the spent surf at 1230 and righted. Her cabin was found to be smashed and two bodies were recovered and placed into the care of a local hospital surgeon and ambulance crew. The wrecked boat was secured to the promenade railings and left to dry out as the tide fell away.

For this service the bronze medal for gallantry was awarded to Senior Crew Member Alan Blair. The thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum have been accorded to Tony Meyler, skipper of MFV Western Seas and ILB crew member, and medal service certificates presented to Keith Stone, crew of Western Seas and ILB crew member, Leonard Gurnett, deputy launching authority Aberystwyth, Crew Members Tommy Ridgeway and Graham Edwards, and Robert Lewis, a volunteer..