7 SALCOMBE

A dark, horrible, heroic night

Salcombe lifeboat volunteers battle the elements to rescue two sailors trapped in horrendous conditions

3.55am on 21 December 2020. Two sailors were in a desperate situation off the coast of Devon. The 7.5m yacht they were on had run aground. With gale-force winds at 34–40 knots, severe squalls and driving rain, the men were in real danger.

In nearby Salcombe, full-time Coxswain/Mechanic Chris Winzar was in bed when his pager went off. ‘It was a very dark, windy night with horizontal rain. Normally, when it's blowing like that and the pager goes off, you think you’re going mid-channel for something commercial in trouble. When the DLA [deputy launching authority] told me it was a yacht aground I thought he was joking. There’s no way there’s a yacht out there in this weather.’

‘It was a horrible night,’ says Deputy Second Coxswain Richard ‘Tricky’ Clayton. ‘My house is at the top of a hill in Salcombe and it was horrendous just getting in the car and down to the station.’

They joined other volunteers at the lifeboat station. ‘It’s always a shock when you’re woken up in the middle of the night,’ says Crew Member Iain Dundas. ‘You end up with clothes on backwards, everyone at the station with a variety of different types of clothing on. It can be a strange sight.’

Kitted up in RNLI gear and ready to go, the Salcombe crew launched their all-weather Tamar class lifeboat The Baltic Exchange III. ‘It’s always a bit of trepidation launching when it’s rough weather and it’s dark,’ says Iain. ‘When you can’t see the waves coming, it’s always a bit more nerve-wracking.’

They reached the reported location of the casualty. Coastguard teams and a helicopter were already on scene searching, but had been unable to find them. Visibility was poor. ‘We were 35–40 metres off the rocks and you couldn’t see the coastline, it was that bad,’ says Chris.

A tough call to make

‘We had the floodlights out, but in that sort of weather with the horizontal rain, it just refracts off the water. I don’t know whether the casualties found their VHF or put out a mayday, but that put us right on a line to them. So we knew they were there on the rocks, but we still couldn’t see them. And it was too windy and dangerous for the helicopter to come in closer.’

The shallow water meant that approaching the casualty’s position on the all-weather lifeboat would be impossible. There was only one solution remaining – the small inflatable dinghy that's carried aboard. ‘In that situation, you wouldn’t normally launch the Y boat,’ explaina Chris. ‘But it was the only way of saving those lives. It was a tall order for the two going into the Y boat. I asked for volunteers, and Tricky and Iain stepped up straight away.’

‘I’m quite comfortable in that boat, quite confident in it,’ says Tricky. ‘I felt I could do it or at least have a closer look.’

‘By this time you could hear the casualties crying out for help over the VHF. It was a risky decision, and the coxswain put it out to us if we wanted to do it,’ says Iain. ‘Being two of the more experienced crew, we were probably best suited for the boat.’

Into the squall

The lifeboat crew launched the Y boat into the water, with Tricky at

‘We were 35–40 metres off the rocks and you couldn’t see the coastline, it was that bad’

CHRIS WINZAR

COXSWAIN | SALCOMBE

Lifesavers in this Bronze Medal rescue: Chris Winzar, Richard ‘Tricky’ Clayton and Iain Dundas

N

The Salcombe crew accept the medals on behalf of the whole station

Wind force 7–8 Severe rain squalls All-weather lifeboat

Casualty Y boat FRESHWATER BAY Chris Winzar Richard ‘Tricky’ Clayton Iain Dundas Chris Kemp Chris Roberts Andy Wheeler Rich Park

Mike Wrigley (Duty Deputy Launching Authority) Dave Dancox (Shore Crew) Doug O'Malley (Shore Crew) Charlotte Savege (Shore Crew)

the helm and Iain at the front of the small dinghy. Launching the Y boat was one thing. The next was to try and get close enough to get eyes on the casualty vessel.

The grounded yacht was stuck in a gully created by rocks on one side, the sheer cliff face on the other. This, when combined with the weather conditions, meant the yacht couldn’t be seen from outside. Tricky and Iain had to get in that gully to find it.

‘I was trying to focus on the coastline to see what the waves were doing,’ says Tricky. ‘My main fear going in was what’s underneath us, because you couldn’t see. My theory was the yacht got in there, so we must be able to.

‘I was about to go for it when a couple of decent sized breakers came in, so I had to back off. As soon as the breakers had gone through, it went calm just for a second. I thought this was it, at least I can get through to the yacht.’

‘It was definitely quite scary. The waves were big, it was pitch black, and we only had a torch to see by,’ says Iain. ‘We couldn’t even see the yacht until we were 10 feet away from it.’

The yacht had begun to break apart. Bashed against the rocks, the mast had

‘My main fear going in was what’s underneath us, because you couldn’t see.’

TRICKY

DEPUTY SECOND COXSWAIN | SALCOMBE

snapped, most of the railings had been destroyed and the deck swamped. It was almost completely underwater, with the two casualties clinging onto the bow. ‘As soon as they saw us, they started shouting and screaming,’ says Tricky. ‘I saw an opportunity to stick the Y boat right onto the bow.’

‘I just yanked them onto the Y boat, face down,’ says Iain. ‘I think I actually picked one of them up, pulled them over the railings and down onto the other.’

‘If Iain had pulled any harder, he would have thrown them out to the lifeboat in the bay!’ says Tricky.

With the casualties onboard, Tricky now had to get them back out of the gully. ‘The main risk was turning the boat around in a very narrow gap,’ he says. ‘It was all a blur really, it was so quick. I got the thing back round and out. Didn’t look back.’

‘The conditions were absolutely terrible,’ says Iain. ‘The waves were coming in, hitting the rocks, bouncing back. But you don’t think about it. You just think about getting them off safely. That’s it.’

Relief

It was an anxious wait back on the lifeboat. ‘If they had got into trouble, the only help would have been the Y boat aboard the Torbay lifeboat, which was at least an hour away,’ says Chris.

Spotting the Y boat emerge from the darkness with four people onboard brought immense relief. ‘Until Tricky and Iain came back, I still didn’t believe that there was a yacht in there,’ says Chris.

The two casualties were taken aboard. ‘One of the casualties sounded drunk. But we soon realised that he was diabetic,’ says Tricky. ‘He didn’t have much longer before he was going to have an attack. Thankfully he had his medicine on him.’

The crew took the casualties inside the wheelhouse and started to get them warm. The Y boat was quickly brought back onboard. Chris, at the helm of the Tamar class lifeboat, headed for home.

Thankfully, the journey back was a lot smoother than the journey out. Back at the station, the two casualties were given a hot shower and assessed by paramedics, before retiring to a room in the local pub to recover.

‘It didn’t really sink in until we got back to the station,’ says Chris. ‘Then you think, “Crikey that was a full-on job”. We didn’t get back until about 7am. Then the crew all had to disappear and go to work.’

Bravery

Almost exactly a year later, at the Salcombe Lifeboat Christmas Party, the announcement was made to the volunteers that Iain and Tricky would be awarded Bronze Medals for their gallantry during the rescue. Chris would be accorded the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum for his expert handling of the lifeboat in the atrocious conditions.

‘I had completely forgotten about the rescue,’ says Iain. ‘It took me by surprise. Everybody’s really happy. It’s a good accolade for the station.’

‘It is a station effort, right through from the fundraisers to the husbands and wives who let us do it,’ says Tricky. ‘We wouldn’t be out there if it wasn’t for everyone else.’

‘Everybody on the boat did their job that night and everybody who responded to the pager and turned

A HISTORY OF COURAGE

The volunteers at Salcombe have a long history of courageous rescues. In fact, since the station first opened in 1869, 18 awards for gallantry have been given to Salcombe volunteers.

The most recent Bronze Medal was awarded in 1992 to Coxswain/Mechanic Frank Yeoman Smith, for his involvement in the rescue of a 1,200 ton coaster Janet C. Frank and his crew used a tow to hold the vessel off rocks for 3 hours in gale-force winds and a heavy sea, before a tug could come along and relieve the lifeboat.

Salcombe lifeboat also has the distinction of having carried out the last war service in 1945, when it went to the aid of a Norwegian minesweeper that had been blown up.

Coxswain Frank Yeoman Smith

up at the station, was involved,’ says Chris. ‘The shore crew assisting the boat getting away and coming back. There’s a lot of people and we accept the recognition for the whole station.’ ■

Words: James Dwyer Photos: Nicholas Leach, RNLI/(Salcombe, Nathan Williams), Shutterstock