Steering damaged BRONZE MEDAL AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY, 1986 found the Channel Islands in the grip of a southerly force 10 storm, which had earlier swept across most of the rest of Britain.

At 1935 St Peter Port Radio alerted the station honorary secretary of Alderney lifeboat station that a yacht, believed to have eight people on board, was broadcasting a MAYDAY appeal from a position three miles north east of the island.

The maroons were fired and five minutes later Alderney lifeboat Foresters Future, a 33ft Brede class boat built in 1983, slipped her moorings and headed out to sea. The quick launch was achieved because the second coxswain had heard the MAYDAY and alerted the coxswain.

At 1945 the lifeboat called the casualty to try to fix her position, but the all-German crew, able only to speak their native language, did not understand the message. An unknown radiostation then called the casualty in German, asking for a long count to be given on channel 16, to determine the yacht's position by the use of VHP direction finding bearing. The position line obtained indicated that the yacht was south east of Quenard light.

During these early minutes the lifeboat remained in the lee of the land, where the weather was southerly force 8, with a moderate sea, overcast sky and squally showers. The tide was running with a very slight ebb. Having fixed the yacht's position, Coxswain Shaw took his boat out from the shelter of the island to meet the full force of the storm.

He took a line north and east of Alderney, before heading south towards the casualty. There were frequent squalls, with seas breaking on top of a 25ft swell, outside the normal operating limits of the lifeboat.

The casualty's lights were sighted when approximately a quarter of a mile ahead of the lifeboat. The 34ft ketch Seylla II was found to the east of Race Rock in heavy overfalls, broadside to the sea, her bow facing west and her steering damaged.

The lifeboat circled the yacht and.