On Wednesday 26 November, the Lymington RNLI volunteer crew took their Atlantic 75 lifeboat to the rescue of a sailing boat unable to sail back due to the atrocious weather conditions.

Having gone out for their weekly sail, an engine failure forced the crew of five onboard the 37’ ketch to put out a 'pan-pan' emergency distress call whilst trying to make their way back to Lymington under sail.

Helmed by Phil Baker, Lymington volunteer lifeboat crew member John Husband, who only recently completed his crew training at the RNLI's Lifeboat College in Poole, and Kevin Coster, launched the Lymington lifeboat at 12:30pm. They headed for Tanners where the casualty was initially reported to be. The weather conditions were such that the lifeboat had to tack out of the river and then turn around to reach the boat off Solent Banks where she was being blown. Having come round to the leeward side, Phil managed to drop John onboard with a first aid kit in case one of the five elderly gentlemen onboard needed attention.

The helmsman then made several attempts to establish a tow but 2.5m high waves kept swamping the boat. Phil rose up to the challenge by tackling the boat from the windward side and a tow was finally set up. With the yacht on tow, the lifeboat started their way back into the wind, hail and rain and succeeded in switching to alongside tow half way down the river.

'Helmsman Phil Baker said: 'In such horrendous weather conditions, this rescue was a superb example of how brilliant team work from the crew can achieve great results.'

Notes to editors

• For 40 years an inshore lifeboat at Lymington has covered an area of the western Solent.
• Six awards have been presented to members of the lifeboat crew for gallantry.
• For more information about the Lymington lifeboat go to /rnli_near_you/east/stations/LymingtonHants
• The Lymington lifeboats will hold their annual fundraising 10km run on May 9th, 2010.
• SOS Day 2010 takes place on Friday 29 January All across the south east and London on SOS Day 2010, RNLI supporters will be doing their bit to raise money for the volunteers who regularly risk their own lives to go to sea to save others. Anyone who wants to enquire about how to get involved with SOS Day can call the RNLI south east regional office on 01825 761466 For more information visit www.rnli.org.uk/sos

RNLI media contacts

Marion Nuding, Lymington RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer, tel: 07870 470939 email: marion@frenchmarketing.co.uk Or call Tim Ash, Divisional Media Relations Manager south east and London, on 01825 747727 or 07785 396252, email: tash@rnli.org.uk  Alternatively, call RNLI public relations on 01202 336789.