Motor cruiser stranded ON THE AFTERNOON OF Sunday August 11, 1985, Mr Anthony Wylie, the watchman of the east pierhead at Ramsgate, was following the progress of a 16ft motor cruiser. She was approaching the harbour from the south, having left the River Stour. The weather was fine but the wind was blowing southerly gale force 8, gusting 10, and there were heavy seas breaking throughout the harbour approaches. The tide was running southerly with high water predicted some six hours later.

Just before the motor cruiser had reached the new breakwater her main outboard engine appeared to fail and one of her occupants began trying to start a smaller outboard engine that was alongside the main engine. Years of experience told the watchman thatthere was every chance that the second engine would fail and he immediately contacted the lifeboat station.

Ten minutes later, at 1355, Ramsgate's Atlantic 21 rigid inflatable lifeboat, Ramsgate Enterprise, had been launched by davit into the harbour and was heading for the harbour entrance with Helmsman Timothy Hurst and Crew Members John Cheeseman, Raymond Noble and Steven Mitchell aboard.

Meanwhile, the motor cruiser could be seen from the pierhead lookout to have been driven down on to the unfinished inner end of the new stone breakwater. Her two occupants had started firing red flares as the boat struck the exposed and jagged stonework. Helmsman Timothy Hurst steered the lifeboat between the shore and the breakwater and then turned down wind as soon as he was on the weather side of the motor cruiser.

It became immediately apparent to the lifeboat crew how dangerous a predicament the motor boat was in; every sea was driving her broadside on to the upper level of stonework and as the waves subsided, the boat dropped back into the water in a series of heavy crashing steps over the stones. They could also see that both of the boat's occupants were wearing buoyancyaids and that one of them was a small boy who had been moved into the forward cabin.

The helmsman had first intended to drop anchor and veer down to the motor boat (something practised regularly at the station for just such an occasion) but he very quickly realised that there was no time for such a drill.

He also realised that the construction of the new breakwater meant that there was heavy stonework just below the surface, some feet from where the structure showed above the waterline.

He doubted therefore whether he could get close enough to reach the two occupants.

As the lifeboat approached the motor boat, bow first, her engines were being continually submerged by heavy seas. A crew member kept stern lookout, telling the helmsman every time a sea was about to overtake the lifeboat. Sea and swell were regularly reaching a height of six feet.

It was now 1358 and just at this moment one of the lifeboat's engines stopped as the helmsman was engaging astern gear. Fortunately, it started again at the first attempt and the approach continued until the third and fourth crew members, in the bow, were able to cast a line to the casualty. The adult on board the motor cruiser managed to hold the line and to secure it to the main outboard engine aft.

Helmsman Hurst waited for a large sea to refloat the motor boat and then put both engines astern and drew the casualty against the seas into deeper water. While this was going on, the entire hull of the lifeboat was submerged so that the crew found themselves up to their knees in water.

With the tow in deeper and slightly calmer water the lifeboat crew had hoped to be able to re-fasten the towline to the forward end of the motor boat. But the man aboard her was reluctant to climb over the cabin top or leave his son alone, so the line was kept on the stern. The lifeboat crew transferred their end of the line to the lifeboat's stern towing position and slowly the motor boat was taken into Ramsgate Harbour.

It had first been thought that the motor cruiser was still sound but, as she was being secured alongside, it became clear that she was rapidly taking water.

The survivors were landed and she was then lifted from the water by shore crane; there was a split in her hullrunning from the forward chine to the transom.

The lifeboat was back alongside her berth at 1420 and was rehoused and ready for service at 1539.

Following this service, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum were presented to Helmsman Timothy Hurst and vellum service certificates were presented to Crew Members John Cheeseman, Steven Mitchell and Raymond Noble..