Fishing boat wreck off St Andrews Scotland

[RunAgroundHard]

Very typical responses to hypothermia by the casualties.

Thanks for posting Standrewsharbour.

 

[Juan Twothree]

It says a lot if the Broughty Ferry inshore lifeboat couldn’t get in there

A D class lifeboat can get in almost anywhere.
But it wouldn't have got out again.

 

[dunedin]

A D class lifeboat can get in almost anywhere.
But it wouldn't have got out again.

I wonder if only the Trent was able to make it there in the time? Does that have a small Y boat or similar, but equally the drying rock ledges are hugely dangerous.
A very long way out in exposed offshore waters from B/F to StA for a D class?

 

[Sandy]

Thanks @Standrewsharbour. It was good to get an eyewitness view. Well done to all who undertook the rescue, as I said in post #2 you crack on and do what you can while the cavalry arrive.

 

[Juan Twothree]

I wonder if only the Trent was able to make it there in the time? Does that have a small Y boat or similar, but equally the drying rock ledges are hugely dangerous.
A very long way out in exposed offshore waters from B/F to StA for a D class?

A Trent carries a little X class dinghy, with a 5hp outboard. Wouldn't have fancied that myself in those conditions.
I'm not familiar with the area at all, so I may well be speaking out of turn, but I'd have been encouraging the CG's on shore to get their dry suits on.

 

[ylop]

A Trent carries a little X class dinghy, with a 5hp outboard. Wouldn't have fancied that myself in those conditions.
I'm not familiar with the area at all, so I may well be speaking out of turn, but I'd have been encouraging the CG's on shore to get their dry suits on.

Do all CG rescue teams/vehicles carry dry suits? The first team on site were presumably the local St Andrews team whilst the second team (who were dry suited up) would be the Leven team (which even with blue lights must be a 20+ minute drive after the team had been paged, mustered, plus got kitted up etc).

 

[Juan Twothree]

Do all CG rescue teams/vehicles carry dry suits? The first team on site were presumably the local St Andrews team whilst the second team (who were dry suited up) would be the Leven team (which even with blue lights must be a 20+ minute drive after the team had been paged, mustered, plus got kitted up etc).

They do, along with PFDs.

It may have been that the nearest team didn't have sufficient numbers available to effect a water rescue, hence had to wait for members of a flank team to attend.

The CG ops room can see immediately when they send the page out how many officers are attending, and whether they are going to the CG station or directly to the incident, so know within a minute or two whether they need to task a flank team.

As regards the time to get on scene, a CG truck has no exemption under the Road Traffic Act, and so has to obey speed limits and traffic signals etc.
Because CG personnel are not fully blue-light trained, the lights and sirens are only there to assist progress through traffic.

 

[bikedaft]

A little bit of context on this situation by someone who has some "insight" potentially.

I'm not saying this was the perfect rescue or here to defend/argue any of the valid points made in this post just to give a little bit of insight.

The day started with the two men on the boat being advised not to leave the harbour due to the conditions at sea, lack of PPE and a main engine out of order so using a small backup outboard that was clearly having issues. As it turned out it was very lucky that a group of friends consisting of 3 very well experienced local fishermen and an off duty firefighter were meeting at the harbour to head into town for a coffee as the events unfolded.

They carried on none the less, as they left the harbour they turned left and immediately fell into trouble as the outboard cut out. They began to get knocked around by the sea, tried putting an anchor down to stop them from getting smashed onto the rocks. They were getting battered (for lack of better words), couldn't get the offboard working and there was only one life jacket aboard along with one of the men on the boat not being able to swim.

They held onto the anchor but eventually the line broke off and the boat began to shift again. They ended up on the rocks and began to take on lots of water / get knocked around.

Emergency services had been called at this time and clearly both men aboard were beginning to panic (no shame in doing so, it was awful conditions out there). They were both clearly freezing and going into shock, the boat was lodged on the rocks taking on water and being knocked around for around 20-25 minutes before the video's start.

The first man to leave the boat did so on his own accord, sitting on the side of the boat and then sliding off the side in a panicked moment. Unfortunately what you are unable to see in the video is the shore line / rocks are very all over the place with steep drops, jagged edges and some fairly awful weather so it would have been very very hazardous to navigate that pathway at the best of times let alone in shock, panic, never been to that area before and been in the freezing water for nearly 30 minutes.

He was urged to wedge himself in the ring as he was hauled up, unfortunately at first he moved too much and slipped out. The ring was sent down again and he was hauled up the wall, again I'm not saying this was perfect practice and there may well have been other ways to go about it but in the heat of the moment, both men in utter panic, clearly going into shock, rough conditions and no equipment this was the solution that came into play.

Thankfully the efforts were successful and the man was rescued.

Onto the second man, who in my opinion had deteriorated physically and mentally majorly at the time of the video starting. He wasn't making much sense when conversing with the men on the harbour wall, clearly freezing and in shock, had very little motor skills left. He was being urged to stay in the boat by everyone on the wall. At this point the first off duty firefighter had called another off duty colleague and he arrived. The coast guard were also here at this point and being urged to jump into action which they just weren't doing, while it is clearly understood that emergency services have certain policies and procedures to follow this clearly wasn't acceptable.

The man on the boat began to deteriorate further and kept shouting about how he wanted to go into the water, after straddling the side of the boat for a good while and being urged to stay in the boat a big enough wave hit the boat and the man was knocked around and ended up with his face/head submerged for a good 20-25 seconds. At this point the life ring was thrown to him and everyone was calling him to grab a hold(as you will hear from the video). The man thankfully raised his head from the water and grabbed a hold, at this point there was nothing to do but try to effect a rescue.

We had been told the helicopter was around 30-35 minutes away, the RNLI couldn't get their small boat in there and the coastguard weren't doing anything so the fishermen and off duty firefighters jumped into action again.

One of the off duty firefighters managed to acquire some line, one of them made the decision to go down and a knot was tied around him while the other off duty firefighter lowered him down, another of the fishermen began to make his way around the rocks. Now while I'm not saying this was the perfect way to do things it took a good while for a experienced fisherman who's picked welks for years (constantly going up and down rocks like that), who hadn't been in the water yet and was a lot younger and able bodied to get along that narrow wall and at one point was submerged above his waist.

Now compare this to the second casualty who had been in the water for nearly 45 minutes, couldn't swim, had been knocked to the head several times, had been underwater, was in total shock and barely conscious. This is why the decision to raise him up as opposed to walk him back was made, it would have put the two rescuers who went into the water at a much much much greater risk if they were to try walk him around by the shore.

A PFD with harness points was acquired and thrown down to the rescuers, the men down in the water got the harness on the man and tied him off, then the hauling of the second man began. It was hashy and rough but it thankfully worked, there was a point where a lot of members of the public were pulling on the line however it was causing too much friction and the mans harness had become wedged. There was attempts to get him loose again but with so many bodies pulling on the line there ended up being a stalling point. As seen in the video the other off duty firefighter shouts at them to ease off and give some slack, the line is loosened and then the man is finally hauled up.

To which the coastguard still didn't have any first aid / casualty care in place.

I apologise for the hashy write up and I am in no way saying this was the perfect / best way to handle the situation however something needed to be done to get those men out the water with limited to no equipment. They were very lucky there were some experienced fishermen, off duty emergency service workers and lots of workers at the harbour for restorations. Just wanted to get some context of the situation out there.

All in all the best was made of a very serious and awful situation. For those who are saying the men seemed relatively safe and calm prior to getting in the water here is a few pictures from before that video took place.

Have blurred out their faces for privacy reasons.

Thanks.

Well done!

And thanks for the full write up.