Boat owners urged to check their moorings

Credit: RNLI/Martin Fish

As a result of two successive call outs to unmanned drifting vessels, the volunteer crew of Penarth RNLI have made a plea to boat owners to check all moorings.

Penarth’s D class lifeboat was launched on February 9 and 11 to reports of drifting vessels. On both occasions crews located small unmanned tender boats that had apparently broken free from their moorings and drifted out to sea.

RNLI volunteers in Penarth have now appealed for the help of local boat owners. Boat owners are asked to check all moorings, especially of tenders, in light of recent bad weather and seasonal high tides.

Jason Dunlop, RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager for Penarth Lifeboat Station said: ‘RNLI volunteers are always ready to answer calls for help whenever their pagers sound and are ready and trained to deal with a variety of incidents.

‘As with any emergency call our volunteers leave their families and workplaces to launch our lifeboats, placing themselves at risk in order to save life at sea.

‘We’re urging boat owners to help the RNLI by making some simple checks.’

On the north west coast, RNLI’s Barrow all weather lifeboat volunteers were tasked to search the coast off Fleetwood for a yacht which had broken free from its moorings on 9 February.