Motor boat, Le Babe, sinks off Puffin Island

Le Babe suffered engine failure and hit rocks at Puffin Island off Anglesey before sinking. The crew were rescued by a passing tourist boat.

Le Babe was washed onto the rocks at Puffin Island

Credit: Puffin Island Cruises

The crew of Le Babe were forced to make a Mayday call after their motor boat suffered engine failure and hit rocks at Puffin Island, near Anglesey.

Stan Zalot, the captain of the tourist boat, Island Princess, contacted the Holyhead Coastguard when the crew’s distress calls went unanswered.

The RNLI Beaumaris and Moelfre lifeboats were launched just after 12.15pm pm on 14 July.

On arrival, the crews found that the two people on board the 35 foot Le Babe had been taken off the vessel.

Staff with Anglesey Boat Trips, who were running trips to Puffin Island from Conwy on their RIB, had come to their assistance.

Both the Beaumaris Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat, Annette Mary Liddington, and the Moelfre Tamar lifeboat, Kiwi, spent several hours trying to remove Le Babe from the rocks.

“In view of the location of the casualty vessel and it being in danger of sinking, both the Beaumaris and the Moelfre lifeboats attempted to remove the boat from the rocks but they could not do so before the vessel sank,” explained a spokesman for Beaumaris RNLI.

As they required no medical assistance, the rescued crew were taken back to Beaumaris Pier by Anglesey Boat Trips.