STRANDED FISHING VESSEL SAVED FROM SINKING 

The RNLI Atlantic 75 lifeboat “Betty Battle” from Hayling Island was launched at around 7.20pm on Sunday 23^rd October to go to the assistance of a 56ft converted motor fishing boat which had run aground on the beach just a few yards north of the lifeboat station. For nine hours 16 voluntary lifeboat crew along with representatives from the Hayling Island Coastguard and Chichester Harbour Conservancy battled to keep the vessel from sinking.

Solent Coastguard had received a 999 telephone call from the fishing vessel’s skipper, who was unfamiliar with the area, reporting a total power failure. The vessel, which was on route from Fowey to Hartlepool, had touched the sea bed at the entrance to Chichester Harbour and damaged its bottom. The Atlantic 75 lifeboat initially attempted to tow the vessel off the beach but it was now well aground and too heavy to move. Two of the voluntary lifeboat crew were put onboard the fishing vessel and found that the electrics had shorted out due to the considerable ingress of water when the vessel was at sea. Most of the bilge water had been pumped out but there remained a considerable quantity of emulsified oil in the lower bilge. There was also a problem with the steering. The skipper and crew of the fishing vessel insisted on staying aboard but the vessel which was stranded on the very edge of the main channel into the harbour with a depth of water of one metre on the port side and 10 metres on the starboard side. The vessel was lying on its starboard side in danger of slipping into the entrance channel should it be swamped by the next incoming tide. As the tide was ebbing for a further one and half hours, the Atlantic 75 lifeboat operating from the seaward side and the tractor, which is used to launch the lifeboat, operating on the beach, rolled the vessel on to its port side and an anchor was laid. After just over an hour afloat the Atlantic 75 lifeboat returned to the lifeboat station.

The Harbour Master, who went onboard to inspect the vessel, requested that in view of its poor state it should not be re-floated in case it sunk in the main channel in the harbour and polluted the harbour waters. The lifeboat crew and the shore crew then rigged up temporary mooring lines from the fishing vessel to the beach groynes. The weather had now deteriorated with pouring rain and a south easterly wind which had increased to Force 6. Both the RNLI launching tractors were used, one to provide light and the other to provide a secure but movable point to assist in the gradual movement of the vessel towards the shore as it re-floated on the incoming tide, which was due to be at its highest point at 3.44am.  

The second Hayling Island lifeboat the D Class "Amanda, James & Ben" was then launched just before 3.30am to bring the crew from the fishing vessel ashore at the lifeboat station where camp beds had been made ready for them. The D Class lifeboat was recovered at 4.00am.