Sjng I e h anded_saNor towed to safety Along and arduous service in gale force winds, heavy seas and wintery conditions in April 1998 has earned Paul Martin, the Coxswain of Skegness lifeboat the RNLI's Thanks on Vellum.

OHThe service began at 1928 on 11 April 1998, when the Skegness Mersey class Lincolnshire Poacher launched after the Coastguard had informed them of a disabled yacht to the east of the station.

At Skegness the wind was northerly and about Force 5, but a moderate to rough sea was running and a 1 Oft swell was breaking at the top of the beach-high water having been about halfan- hour before.

The carriage-launched lifeboat cleared the surf and Paul took her east towards the casualty, a 44ft yacht called Sea Fever. The yacht was in radio contact with the dredger Sand Wader which was anchored near the off-lying Scott Patch and preparing to get under way to render assistance. From the dredger the lifeboat crew learned that there was only one person aboard the yacht and that she had no steering.

Picking her up first on radar and then visually the lifeboat was able to reach the scene shortly after 2000. to find Sea Fever heading roughly to the WNW and yawing violently. The sole crew could be seen in the cockpit, but could not be contacted by radio One headsail was set, catching the wind as she crested the seas and blowing her bow down to leeward, while her engine was running and the jammed steering was sheering her back up to starboard in the troughs.

The only solution was to put a crew member aboard to check the skipper's condition and ready the yacht for a tow. This would be difficult as another of her headsails was trailing over the side, the mains'l was loose on deck and the mizzen boom was thrashing from side to side as she rolled.

The wind here was Force 7 to 8 and with the ebb now running against it the windover- tide conditions Wind Northerly Force 7 to 8 15ft swell 60* F»v«t at 200Swere steepening the 15ft high seas.

Withthe lifeboat's starboard bow heavily rigged with fenders Coxswain Martinapproached from the yacht's port quarter while Sand Wader made a slow pass to windward to try to provide a lee.

In the heavy seas it took five approaches to the wildly bucking yacht before crew member David Sellers managed to jump aboard and a further two before Mick Abbot was able to join him - by which time Sand Wader's lee was well past.

The yacht skipper was found to be incapacitated by exhaustion and sea sickness but otherwise unharmed, so the lifeboat men tidied up the yacht and prepared her for towing. With the yacht's engine stopped and now lying beam-on to the seas Coxswain Martin found putting the tow across easier than the first approaches, and by keeping head-to-sea and coming down astern to the yacht's bow the line was passed at the first attempt.

With 25 fathoms of warp attached to a tyre for a shock-absorber and then a further 40 fathoms of warp to the lifeboat the tow began at about 2024.

There were two options. The first was to head down-sea to Wells and the Norfolk coast, but as all the harbours there dry out this meant keeping the casualty at sea until the next high water. The second option gave a longer tow upwind, but by heading for Grimsby the lifeboat could get Sea Fever into a harbour not restricted by the tide.

Paul opted for the second and, after a short detour to avoid the overfalls on the Inner Dowsing Bank, settling down at 6.5 knots into the wind and sea -the yacht's jammed steering keeping her permanently sheered out to starboard.

The tow had to be stopped twice, to re-secure gear on the yacht, but by 0002 after three-and-a-half hours of cold, wet and arduous tow the lifeboat and casualty were ready to enter Grimsby Fish Dock. The tow was shortened up, as it was too rough to contemplate an alongside tow, and the approach began.

It was tow water, but although the deep-draft yacht grounded once in the entrance and made contact with a pier she was soon put safely alongside in the deeper water of a lock.

Lincolnshire Poacnerwas now far from home and the long passage back to Skegness meant that she did not beach there until 0455 - nearly nine-and-a-half hours after launching..