Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats deal with multiple call outs during Rolex Fastnet Race

RNLI lifeboats deal with multiple call outs during Fastnet Race © RNLI

Four lifeboats from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) were called out to a string of incidents in terrible conditions at the weekend as the 50th Fastnet Race got under way in boat-breaking conditions.

The famous 695-mile yacht race, started at Cowes in the Solent on Saturday with a record-breaking 430 entrants racing around the Fastnet Rock, off Ireland, before finishing in Cherbourg, France.

But with winds gusting up to 46mph, heavy rain and challenging seas of 4m, RNLI crews from Yarmouth, Poole, Swanage and Weymouth responded to multiple taskings by HM Coastguard throughout the opening few hours of the race with more than a quarter of entrants retiring by the end of the end of Sunday.

As the racing fleet departed the Solent facing the full force of the weather, RNLI lifeboats were tasked to a multitude of incidents.

A yacht with two people onboard issued a distress call after it had begun taking on water. The Yarmouth all-weather lifeboat arrived on scene locating a liferaft with two people in it after their yacht had sunk. They were taken onboard the Yarmouth lifeboat where they were generally well but shaken.

In another serious incident, Swanage all-weather lifeboat was tasked to a yacht with a sailor onboard suffering a head injury and requiring immediate evacuation. Two lifeboat crew were placed onboard in rough conditions to carry out casualty care. Once in the calmer waters of Studland Bay the casualty was evacuated by lifeboat and handed over to the care of the ambulance.

RNLI lifeboats were tasked to many other incidents throughout the blustery afternoon ranging from dismasted yachts, a number of accidental emergency positioning radio beacon (EPIRB) alerts, a yacht with steering failure and a hand injury.

Yarmouth RNLI Coxswain, Howard Lester said: 'This weekend's Fastnet race was the busiest one for Yarmouth lifeboat, responding to six incidents in some very challenging conditions in the western Solent and beyond.

'We were very fortunate that all our call outs were to crews with means of calling for help and were equipped with either lifejackets or had life rafts accessible onboard.'

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