Three lifeboats save six people from devastated dinghy_raceII three of Southend-on-Sea's inshore lifeboats were at sea on 3 January this year when rapidly deteriorating conditions devastated a fleet of racing sailing dinghies.

The race, the annual Brass Monkey event, was being held off nearby Leigh-on-Sea but as the wind rose to Severe Gale Force 9 and the sea state worsened every one of the competitors was in trouble. The safety boats guarding the fleet were overwhelmed by the number of incidents and at 1242 the Coastguard activated the lifeboat crew's pagers to begin a long and arduous service for the three crews.

David Acland, the RNLI's Chairman later sent the station a framed letter of thanks for their initiative, resourcefulness and team work.

The f irst D class launched from her slipway at the base of the pier in short order, and a second crew went to the pier head to launch the Atlantic stationed there.

With so many casualties Southend's third lifeboat was needed, so another crew wassummoned by telephone and they launched the pier-head D class.

The wind by now was around 45 knots from just north of west, blowing the capsized and sinking dinghies offshore and out of the estuary.

All three lifeboats worked steadily at checking the upturned and sinking boats, taking off people up to a mile-and-a-half out to sea.

Three people were landed by the Atlantic at Leigh, before she returned to the rapidly expanding search area.

Several craft had to be checked to ensure that no one was trapped under them, and the situation was aggravated by the fact that conditions were so bad and the number of casualties so great that it was impossible to retrieve them. As a result a steady flow of reports from people ashore and other shipping meant that some dinghies had to be checked and rechecked.

The lifeboats found that they were being tasked to the same upturned vessel several times.

By now the wind was so strong that the windage of the centreplates of some of the dinghies was enough to flip them partially upright, the wind then getting under the sails and righting them before capsizing them again.

In this kind of weather all three lifeboats had great difficulty getting alongside some of the dinghies.

Eventually all three boats were stood down, having rescued a total of six people - but just after they were all rehoused at around 1500 came another call from the Coastguard. The report was of a person possibly clinging to an upturned boat about threequarters of a mile offshore further down the estuary.

There were also more reports from shipping about abandoned boats drifting out to sea.

The Atlantic and the inshore D class launched again, the Atlantic first checking out the reported person but established that the boat was unoccupied.

To avoid further reports of drifting boats the Atlantic and the D - with the assistance of Sheerness's allweather boat, recently released from another service - managed to sort out and bring back a total of six dinghies. These were all casualties from the morning race, and with all boats now accounted for there were no further reports coming in.

The two lifeboats finally returned to their stations at 1740, the return of service noting that 'the crews were somewhat weary by then...'..