The RNLI were called out on Saturday evening when a yacht being sailed by its new owner ran aground on rocks at Redcar
A yacht ran aground on rocks at Redcar on
Saturday evening after trying to avoid Teesside wind farm.
Lifeboats came to the aid of the stricken
yacht, which was being sailed for the first time by its new owner.
The two crewmen onboard were headed for
Hartlepool Marina having purchased the boat at Whitby earlier in the day.
The grounded yacht was spotted just after
6pm by an off-duty Redcar RNLI volunteer.
Redcar RNLI’s Dave Cocks said: “When our
volunteer crew got alongside the yacht, the two men on board told them one of
the men had just bought the yacht and this was their first attempt to sail it.”
“In an attempt to avoid sailing through the
Teesside Wind Farm, they decided to stay close inshore but unfortunately that
brought them into contact with rocks off Redcar.”
Two RNLI volunteers joined the crew onboard
the yacht and waited for the tide to rise.
At 11.40pm the yacht was refloated and
escorted to Hartlepool as the crew were unable to navigate the vessel in the
dark.
Mr Cocks said: “Neither of the yacht’s crew
were able to navigate at night, so two of our crew remained on board for the
passage to Hartlepool.”
“The yacht was not carrying navigation
charts so, even if they had been qualified, they couldn’t have plotted a
route.”
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