Disabled longliner towed to safety in Force 9 Gale and 20ft seasTowing a fishing vessel of virtually ten times the displacement of the lifeboat isn't easy, to do so in seas averaging 20ft high and winds up to Force 9 is more difficult still. Add some snow squalls, visibility bad enough to leave the casualty visible only on radar and you have some idea why Aith lifeboat's coxswain Hylton Henry was awarded the RNLI's Thanks on Vellum for a service to the Norwegian fishing vessel Vindhammer in February 1996.The propeller of the 115ft longliner had be- come fouled some 40 miles to the NW of the station on 7 February 1996, leaving her drifting at the mercy of a Severe Gale from the SSE, beam on to breaking seas more than 20ft high.

At 0630 the Coastguard had told the station of the plight of Vindhammer and her eleven man crew, and half-an-hour later Aith's Arun class Snolda was on her way to sea.

Snolda is the only steel-built Arun and although a little heavier than her glassf ibre sisters her displacement of 32.5 tonnes was still dwarfed by the 310 tonnes of the vessel she was going to rescue.

Clear of the land at Muckle Roe the sea began to build up from the port quarter. Coxswain Henry remarked that coming from SSE they were steeper than those they more usually experienced rolling in from the open NW. Five or six times Snolda almost broached in the growing seas, coxswain Henry taking things in his stride - 'we took off all the power and straightened her up' - and maintaining about 18 knots.

The lifeboat had allowed for Vindhammer's drift and by 0915 she was at the scene, manoeuvring up to her in the breaking seas and successfully passing a tow line at the third attempt.

By 0930 the tow was secure, and Coxswain Henry began to make for the nearest shelter in Yell Sound, a distance of some 25 miles.

The seas were now almost on the beam, the occasional one peaking at over 30ft, and Snolda was only able to make about two or three knots with the 300-tonne longliner in tow. As the winds gusted up to Force 9 she had to come up into the wind and sea to prevent damage and too much leeway, easing back on course in the respite between the snow showers when the wind dropped to around Force 7 to 8.

The 220m tow line was not long enough to take out all of the snatch, and an extra 400m was added from the fishing vessel. With more than a quarter of a mile of tow line out Snolda began to pickup speed a little, easing her way towards the shelter of Yell Sound at about four and a half knots. With this length of towand poor visibility in the snow squalls Vindhammer was sometimes only visible on the lifeboat's radar.

The tow had to be halted five times to 'freshen the nip' (change the point where the line chafed) and it was not until 1530 that the lifeboat and casualty eased their way into the shelter of the sound.

Even here the Force 9windhada 10 mile 'fetch' of open water and a steep, sharp sea was running.

Coxswain Henry had originally intended to berth the casualty at one of the piers in the Sound, but they were all occupied by fishing vessels sheltering from the storm. The wind had led to the suspension of all tanker movements, so it was possible to use a berth known as the Construction Pier at the oil terminal.

Although now sheltered from the seas Coxswain Henry faced the tricky task of safely berthing the large fishing vessel, which he did by easing up into the wind and, by carefully applying power and then easing off, positioned Vindhammer so that the wind blew her safely alongside the pier at 1815 The tow had taken nearly nine hours.

Although Snolda was now only about ten miles from home as the crow flies it was around 40 miles by sea. So, after refuelling and a bite to eat, the crew took her back out into the gale, finally berthing at Aith at 2215, fifteen and a half hours after she had left..