Yacht crew rescued following international long-range rescue
The 13 British crew and one US national whose 60ft yacht, the ‘Clyde Challenger’, sent an emergency beacon alert, which was picked up by the UK Coastguard at 8.00 pm on Thursday evening, have been rescued. All are safe and well, having been rescued by a sea boat off of HMS Dragon this afternoon. The vessel was about 400 nautical miles west-south-west of Cape Finisterre when it became dis-masted and lost its rudder due to bad weather.
The UK
Coastguard’s National Maritime Operations Centre coordinated the long-range
search and rescue mission. The Coastguard used satellite communications to request
vessels able to assist the yacht to contact UK Coastguard and several responded
with offers of help. The first merchant vessel on scene was the ‘Industrial
Challenger’ on the evening of Thursday 9th. It established contact
with the Clyde Challenger and communicated with UK Coastguard about the issues
with the vessel and the wellbeing of the crew.
A C130 Hercules
aircraft from 47 Squadron RAF Brize Norton arrived on scene at 8.00 am on
Friday 10th and immediately located the Clyde Challenger. It provided
on-scene communications to all of the vessels, aircraft and operations rooms
involved in the mission. The Hercules was soon joined by the bulk carrier MV
Cape Breeze. Due to the storm force conditions on scene the master of the bulk
carrier deemed it too dangerous to close on the stricken yacht to facilitate a
rescue.
The merchant
vessels ‘CPO Finland’ and ‘Sti Dama’ arrived on the afternoon of Friday 10th
at which time the Hercules was replaced by a US Air Force KC 135 Tanker from
100th Air Refuelling Wing based at RAF Mildenhall. With weather on
scene still precluding rescue efforts the MV Cape Breeze and Sti Dama were
released. The CPO Finland remained on scene and attempted – without success -
to rescue the crew three times.
Following
liaison with UK Coastguard, on the evening of Friday 10th, the Royal
Navy’s Type 45 Destroyer HMS Dragon began making its way towards the Clyde
Challenger’s position 500 nautical miles away.
Prior to the
arrival of HMS Dragon the US Air Force 352nd Special Operations
Group V22 Ospreys based out of RAF Mildenhall were cued up to attempt a long
range option but due to the weather on scene this option was not viable.
On the morning
of Saturday 11th the first of two US Navy patrol aircraft out of US
Naval Air Station Sigonella (Sicily), replaced the Tanker aircraft as on scene
communications coordinator. The merchant vessel Antimilos also arrived on
scene.
The Royal Navy
T45 Destroyer HMS Dragon arrived on scene on Saturday 11th at 2.45
pm and began the rescue of the 14 sailors using their Pacific 24 foot Sea Boat.
All crew had been rescued by 4.50 pm and the 14 crew are proceeding to a safe
port on board the warship.
Other vessels
that responded but did not participate in the search and rescue mission were
the: Marco Polo, Afric Star, Ugale, and a Portuguese warship.