Three snatched from wave-swept rock using boarding boat The Director of the RNLI has written to Alderney lifeboat station to congratulate coxswain Stephen Shaw and his crew on the excellent teamwork shown during a service by the station's Waveney Louis Marches! of Round Table in extremely difficult conditions.

On 12 August 1992 a 24ft yacht ran aground on the Outer Brinchetias rock, an isolated rock in the Alderney Race some half-a-mile from the shore, in a southwesterly wind which touched Storm Force 10 at times.

Within ten minutes the yacht began to break up and the three crew took to the rocks. With a rising tide it would only be a matter of 30 minutes before the rocks were covered and the survivors swept away.

Louis Marches! of Round Table launched at 1426 for a short but difficult passage to the casualty's position. Taking a very tricky inshore route to save time and gain some shelter the lifeboat and the station's boarding boat reached the yacht in some five minutes - but only after being swept by some very heavy breaking seas and 'stopper-like' waves.

The Waveney anchored and veered down among the rocks within the reef itself. Then, using the boarding boat, second coxswain Martin Harwood was transferred to the reef carrying lifejackets for the survivors. As he was negotiating a deep gulley a large wave swept the reef and he was carried across it.

Watching from the lifeboat the coxswain was ready to cut the anchor warp and take her round to the leeward side of the reef to retrieve Martin Harwood, but as the wave subsided the second coxswain could be seen on the same rock as the survivors and still clutching the lifejackets.

The boarding boat was then veered down from the lifeboat, the helmsman skilfully threading her through the rocks and reefs into a position where she was swept onto the survivors' rock.

Martin Harwood and the survivors boarded quickly and she was pulled and driven clear with the help of another large wave. By 1439 all were aboard the lifeboat and four minutes later the Waveney began to weigh anchor. Just as the anchor cleared the sea bed a squall swept through, catching the lifeboat beam on and driving her downwind over submerged rock headsand towards the very rock they had worked so hard to retrieve the casualties from.

However the coxswain was at last able to coax the lifeboat round, and out of the maze of reefs and rocks and head back to the station. In the short trip back the conditions were such that she broached heavily in the Brinchetia Passage, coming very close to the rocks on the seaward side.

By 1605 Louis Marchesi of Round Table was safely back on her mooring and the survivors transferred ashore with the boarding boat - now working in conditions to which she was more accustomed!.