Fishing boat circles out of control after accident

Yachting & Boating World: A father and son had a lucky escape on Saturday following a freak engine accident that saw them thrown into the sea and circled by their vessel.

Their fishing boat’s engine had broken down and the pair were attempting to fix it when it restarted in gear and was set to full speed. The men were immediately thrown into the water and the fishing boat continued to circle out of control around them for 40 minutes.

The vessel only came to a stop when it ran out of fuel and the younger man was able to climb back on board and send out a Mayday distress call.

Meanwhile, his father had been carried nearly a quarter of a mile from the boat by the tide. Volunteer crewman Cameron Bond who responded to the distress call, said: “When we pulled the man from the sea he was shaking violently and couldn’t speak.”I knew from my RNLI training that I had to get the guy back to the beach as fast as I could so the crew from the lifeboat station could give him first aid.”

Both men were taken ashore and then transferred to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough by ambulance. The Redcar lifeboat later returned to the scene to tow the fishing boat back to land, where volunteers put the boat on its trailer.Redcar RNLI’s Dave Cocks, said: “The two men have had an extremely lucky escape.

There have been some tragic accidents involving boats when people are thrown into the sea and the boat’s engine keeps going.”It was extremely fortunate that one of our own lifeboat crew members was at sea fishing when the Mayday went out.

He was quickly on scene to rescue the man from the water; otherwise it could have been tragic.”Both men really owe a lot to the RNLI’s training on this occasion.”

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