ABANDONED RACING TO RESCUE DIVERS

 

Royal Southampton member Martyn Hindley and his fellow competitor Jonathan Enderby abandoned racing in the Club's Weymouth Double on Saturday to rescue divers in Weymouth Bay.

They were competing in Martyn's Maxi 1100, Tosara Blue two stage Weymouth Double from the central Solent to Weymouth and back and were within five miles of the finish line at Weymouth when the drama unfolded. The 100 mile return race was the second  in the Club's McGuigan Wines sponsored Double Handed Series.

Said Martin: "At around 18.15 on Saturday we noticed a yellow rib with one person on board approximately 4.5 miles from the finish of the race in Weymouth Bay. She was waving a flag and we therefore presumed that she was warning us of divers near her position. We thus tacked away only to notice she became more frantic – we then heard a cry for help. We then tacked back. The lady was in real distress.

"At this point we stopped racing, started the engine and called Portland Coastguard reporting in a rib floating without power. As we approach the lady reported her husband had gone over the side. After a couple more minutes, she increased this to her husband and two friends had gone diving 60 minutes ago and she could not find them and could start the engine of the rib.

"Wearing no lifejacket, she had lost her glasses over the side and could not see to work the radio to call assistance. She was inconsolable.

"By this time the CG helicopter Whisky Bravo had been launched together with the lifeboat from Weymouth.

"Luckily, WB immediately located the surfaced divers approximately half-a-mile from the position of the rib. Although the divers had got an inflatable marker, we could not see them even when we knew their position from the helicopter – and there was only a small chop. All indicated that they were ok. WB hovered over their position whilst we took the rib in tow and transferred the lady to our yacht. The lifeboat was stood down as we agreed to tow the rib back in.

"We recovered the three divers providing tea and Kit Kats before towing them and their rib back to Weymouth arriving around 21.00 to a very generous thank you from the Coastguard and a request to visit their HQ on the harbour front in Weymouth.

Above all, the race became insignificant.: we started with two on board and finished with six towing a rib; so much for taking weight off the boat before hand and making sure the water tanks we almost empty! Now that is probably a first in the history of the double handed racing series history!

We really appreciated the recognition, and reminder of the racing rules to help anybody in distress, that we were given when the Commodore very generously presented Jonathan Enderby and myself with a bottle of champagne during the prize giving.