Stranded 26ft yacht rescued from ‘choppy’ Bognor waters

The Littlehampton RNLI lifeboat was launched to rescue a yacht stranded near rocks in the waters at Bognor on Friday.
The lifeboat crewThe lifeboat crew
The lifeboat crew

The yacht, which was located a quarter of a mile from Bognor pier, had requested assistance from the HM Coastguard.

The station’s lifeboat Renee Sherman was launched in anticipation of taking the yacht on tow, a spokesman said.

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However low tide was approaching so it was uncertain whether there would be enough water to get both boats over ‘the bar’ – a shallow water area at the entrance to Littlehampton harbour, the spokesman said.

The yacht being towed back to seaThe yacht being towed back to sea
The yacht being towed back to sea

On arriving at the scene, the skipper of the 26 foot yacht informed the RNLI crew that his yacht was suffering from a fouled propeller and therefore he was unable to make safe harbour under sail alone.

Due to low tide restrictions it was decided to tow the yacht to Shoreham, where the Shoreham RNLI D class lifeboat Joan Woodland then towed the yacht in to the harbour.

The RNLI lifeboat Renee Sherman was stood down at 8.10pm and headed back to Littlehampton.

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Andy Harris, Helm of Renee Sherman, said: ‘Fortunately is was a clear evening, but with a steady Force 4 wind blowing from the south-west the sea state was choppy.

“With the falling tide we realised we would not be ble to tow the yacht back to Littlehampton until much later in the evening so we towed the yacht to Shoreham where our colleagues from the RNLI Shoreham station then took over the tow of the yacht in to the harbour.

“The low water at Littlehampton meant that we were not able to return to harbour until 10.25pm.’

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