A yacht made a Mayday call after losing power and getting caught in the tide off Carnac Point, Inverness.
Volunteers from RNLI Kessock were mustering ahead of routine training exercise when they overhead the VHF Mayday call and established that they could see the stricken vessel from the lifeboat station.
They launched the Atlantic 85 Class lifeboat with four crew aboard at 10.50am.
The 28ft yacht had been leaving Inverness when it lost all power as it rounded Carnac Point. It started to drift on the fast incoming tide towards the old slipway at South Kessock. The two crew aboard the yacht dropped their anchor but this failed to hold in the fast flowing tide.
A towline was quickly attached to the disabled vessel before it ran aground or hit the slip way. It was towed back to Inverness Marina where Inverness Coastguard Team helped the volunteer crew secure the yacht in a berth.
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RNLI Helmsman Stan MacRae estimated the tide was running at 4 to 5 knots as he approached the yacht in the lifeboat. He said: ‘The two sailors did exactly the right in calling for help as soon they realised they were in difficulty and their anchor wasn’t holding. If they had waited any longer before raising the alarm we might have been launching to a completely different situation.’
The volunteer crew were stood down by 11.45am and continued with their training exercise.