On Wednesday evening, the International Moth Class presented a cheque for £500 to the Hayling Island RNLI Lifeboat Station to thank them for their help in rescuing sailors, including Moth sailors, throughout the year. Co-incidentally during the presentation, a yacht called 'Moth' was being towed in by the RNLI past the Lifeboat station.
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Moth yacht being towed in by RNLI - Tom Gruitt / yachtsandyachting.com |
Graham Simmonds of the UK Moth Class Association said on presenting the cheque to Siri Young, Hayling RNLI Fundraising Chairman, 'On two occasions in the last two weeks, the RNLI have been called out because Moth sailors have been caught out in the Bay in adverse conditions. It's hot, they get into their drysuits, get out there and they helped us out. It's just fantastic and they fully deserve this donation. I have personally been ‘rescued’ by the Lifeboat crew when I was trying to get in against the tide in very light winds - they came and asked if I should be going backwards and then helped me out!'
Jonathan Bradbury, the Lifeboat Operations Manager said, 'We've had 30 call-outs this year. This afternoon we had a call-out to a when an engine had overheated on a boat that was coming back into the harbour, the inlet to cool the engine had snapped off so water, instead of going into the engine, started spraying all over the engine which was hot so turned into steam. The engine then wasn't getting any cooling fluid, the tide was going out and he was going into Chichester harbour so he burnt out the HT leads. We then had to hold the boat off the Lifeboat Station while Fire Service personnel checked that it wasn't burning.'
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Tom Gruitt / yachtsandyachting.com |
With the International Moth Class World Championships being held at Hayling Island Sailing Club, the Hayling Island RNLI Lifeboat is ideally placed if help should be needed during the event.
138 foiling Moth dinghies from 18 countries taking part with Olympic medallists and America's Cup sailors in the fleet. British sailor Chris Rashley is currently battling for the lead with Australia's Nathan Outteridge.
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