damage. He also felt it would be too dangerous to try to close alongside.

Instead, he instructed his crew to prepare a tow and moved the lifeboat, stern-first, towards the casualty's port bow. The occupants could be seen in the after cockpit and when he learned that two out of the four were young children, he decided he had to put someone aboard.

Asking his second coxswain to jump when he could, Coxswain Cannon made a number of approaches to narrow the gap, but each time the roll of the cruiser made it impossible to jump. On the third attempt, however, the coxswain saw another of his crew, Timothy Hurst, who had been on the stern with the towline, leap the four feet across and down on to the casualty. He had attached himself to the towline in case he missed his jump.

Within the next few minutes Coxswain Cannon was nearly unable to believe the speed with which Crew Member Hurst first made fast the tow, checked it for possible chafing and then went aft to check the occupants. The cruiser owner later reported that Hurst took the two frightened and seasick children (aged 8 and 11), one under each arm, and told them all would be well now that he was in command, provided they went into the cabin and left room for him to steer. He also asked the owner's wife to go with them.

By 2135 Hurst reported by radio that all was secure on board and the tow began for Ramsgate. Margate harbour was nearer but discounted because of its shoaling approach and the prevailing weather. The second yacht, Camelot, agreed to follow the lifeboat into Ramsgate.

The return passage was made without serious incident although speed had to be reduced to prevent the cruiser from yawing in the beam seas. Harbour was reached at 2315 and the cruiser safely secured on the western pontoons. At 2345 the lifeboat was refuelled and ready for service.

For this service, a framed letter of thanks, signed by the Duke of Atholl, was sent to Crew Member Timothy Hurst.

West Division Man in water AN AUXILIARY COASTGUARD at RhoS On Sea, Mr Brian Allen, on the evening of Thursday October 18, 1984, noticed a small dinghy with one person on board being rowed with some difficulty in the harbour. At the time there was a west south westerly near gale force 7 blowing, gusting to force 8 and Mr Allen was worried about the boat's safety. He watched it making slow progress across the harbour but when the occupant reached a 16ft power cruiser he continued on his way.

Twenty-five minutes later, at 1825, Mr Allen received a telephone call from Holyhead coastguard saying that a dinghy was reported overturned in the harbour with someone clinging to it.

He realised exactly what must have happened and went straight back to the harbour.

Although the wind was blowing over the land and the sea was calm, the gusts were very variable in direction. He could see the red dinghy upside down and another dinghy with two people on board alongside it. This second dinghy had been launched by Ronald Broster, a photographer, and Mereion Roberts, a fisherman, after one of the sons of the man in the water had alerted them to what had happened.

The man in the water was very heavy and it would neither have been wise nor indeed possible to pull him aboard the second dinghy. Instead, he was held over the transom by one of his rescuers while the other paddled the dinghy back to the shore. This took some ten minutes and when the man was landed he was found to be suffering from hypothermia.

He was wrapped in blankets and taken to the nearby Rhos Abbey Hotel to await the arrival of the ambulance that Mr Allen had requested. The man was later checked over and subsequently released.

Following this incident, framed letters of thanks, signed by the Duke of Atholl, chairman of the RNLI, were sent to Ronald Broster and Mereion Roberts. A letter of appreciation, signed by Rear Admiral W. J. Graham, director, was also sent to Mr Brian Allen..