Two mayday calls in quick succession put Walton and Frinton lifeboat crew on high alert

motoryacht’s two crew issued a mayday just before 1pm on Monday 21 June, after suffering engine failure. The boat was drifting towards a sandbank, 6 miles east of Walton, Essex, in waters too deep to anchor.

Working at the station, lifeboat Mechanic Karl Bigwood recalls: ‘The mayday got an instant response – the lifeboat crew were on their way.’ Within minutes, a second mayday from the same vessel was transmitted. A woman onboard the motoryacht had fallen and sustained a spinal injury.

It took just 8 minutes from paging the Walton and Frinton crew to launching the lifeboat. The conditions were fair, force 3–4; the Tyne class lifeboat Kenneth Thelwall II made good speed at 18 knots. Coxswain Gary Edwards comments: ‘It was potentially very serious – if the boat had hit the bank with the woman in that condition ... ’

A search and rescue helicopter from RAF Wattisham in Suffolk, on exercise nearby, was diverted to the incident. As the lifeboat joined the helicopter on scene, 35 minutes after launching, Karl recalls: ‘We found the motoryacht rolling in the shallows of the sandbank. It was tricky.’

This constant movement made it too risky to winch the injured woman directly from the motoryacht into the helicopter and the option of transferring her to the lifeboat first might aggravate her condition. Between them, the RAF Pilot and the Coxswain devised an alternative plan and quickly put it into action.

First Gary manoeuvred the lifeboat alongside the yacht to transfer two crew. He picked two experienced lifeboatmen, Trevor Halls and Simon Berry, to assist onboard the yacht. As soon as they jumped safely across, Gary whisked the lifeboat away. It was a textbook manoeuvre, often practised in training.

Trevor and Simon then checked over the boat and the couple onboard. They learned that the woman’s condition was complicated – she had a tumour on her spine. She was stable, however, and the crew set about establishing a tow.

Avoiding any sudden jerks that might cause the casualty more pain, the lifeboat towed the motoryacht out of the swell into smoother waters. The Coxswain headed into the wind at a steady 5 knots.

Now that the motoryacht was more stable, the helicopter hovered over her and, keeping pace, lowered a winchman safely aboard. Trevor and Simon helped the winchman manoeuvre the woman carefully into a double strop (two ropes around waist and legs). Within seconds she was safely in the helicopter and on her way to Ipswich Hospital, about 9 minutes by air.

The two lifeboatmen remained on the motoryacht with the skipper while the lifeboat towed them to Levington Marina, within easy reach of the hospital. At 5pm, after a 45-minute passage home, the lifeboat was made ready for service once again.

The crew were pleased to have helped the pair, but Karl is matter of fact about the key role they played in the rescue: ‘You just get on and do your job.’