Royal Southampton member Kirsteen Donaldson stood by in the English Channel when coastguards launched a would-be rescue involving another yacht.
Kirsteen was sailing Pyxis en route from Brest to Southampton when they came across the yacht Erma ten miles off Portland. Kirsteen dropped the spinnaker on Pyxis and turned round to investigate.
Portland Coastguard said they received a call from the crew of a yacht expressing concern for the yacht, Erma, who had caused them to alter course in the middle of the English Channel and who did not respond to hails or VHF
The crew of the vessel also did not respond to calls from Portland Coastguard or whistles from a nearby coaster. The Coastguard rescue helicopter 106 was scrambled to investigate.
Andy Jenkins, Watch Manager at Portland Coastguard said: "Eventually after sounding sirens from the helicopter, the single person on board reported that he was on passage from Portland to the Azores and was conducting work below.
"He was told of the inadvisability of effectively sailing blind through the busiest shipping lane in the world. He said he was sailing on his own to The Azores from Portland but we stressed he must keep a look-out at all times.
"There are devices, like auto-helm or anti-collision radar, which we don't know if this man had, but these should not be relied upon on their own.
"It costs a few thousand pounds to scramble the helicopter and in this case it could have been avoided."
