Rescue after motor cruiser hits Llandudno Pier

Llandudno RNLI assisted the skipper of the motor cruiser after his vessel was damaged while attempting to tie up at Llandudno Pier.

Llandudno RNLI assists motor cruiser
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Llandudno’s RNLI all-weather lifeboat was launched just after midnight on 25 May to go to the assistance of a motor cruiser in difficulties in Llandudno Bay, North Wales.

The skipper of the 35 foot single-engined steel cruiser, Windy Anna had attempted to tie up at Llandudno pier.

He struck the pier a number of times, damaging the vessel. The skipper then tried to moor at a jetty marker post, but was directed away seawards by coastguards ashore.

At this point, the man called the coastguard via mobile phone to ask for help.

Apart from the skipper, another man and a dog were also on board the Windy Anna.

Llandudno’s Mersey-class lifeboat, Andy Pearce was launched at 12.40am, reaching the cruiser within minutes.

Due to the Windy Anna’s erratic movement, the lifeboat had to make a number of attempts before an RNLI crewman could be successfully transferred aboard to take command.

It transpired the two sailors had been at sea for some 15 hours and were heading for Bristol. Their original port of departure remains unknown.

With the RNLI lifeboat in close attendance, the motor cruiser was taken round Great Orme’s Head, into the River Conwy, and to Conwy marina.

Speaking after the rescue, an RNLI Llandudno spokesman said: “Given the erratic nature of the motor cruiser’s progress, the heavy swell and the stiff onshore breeze, there can be little doubt that but for the timely assistance of the lifeboat the vessel would have been driven through the surf onto the beach, or onto the rocks of the Great Orme coastline, with the inevitable serious danger to the men on board.”