Heckler
Well-Known Member
We had gone down for the weekend, do a few jobs, tidy up and see what the weather was going to throw at us. We moor on the piles and see peeps launching and recovering all the time. Anway me down below sorting the fwd heads out and SWMBO up above. All of a sudden she shouts, quick Stu, i go up and she says there is some one in the water. There is a small cuddy type boat with an outboard, moving with the outgoing (the tide by the way was hurtling out) tide down the inside trots. I jumped in the dink followed by swmbo, started the donk (first pull luckily) and we shot in between the opposite pile and a moored boat, under some mooring lines and came along side the moving angling boat. There was a 60ish chap hanging on the transom with a young chap who had just arrived with his arms supporting him. The old guy was grey with and breathing really heavily. The engine was still running so swmbo jumped on board and switched it off and said Ill look after the boat, you and the lad get the man into the dink. I tried to calm the man down and as part of it said dont you dare have a heart attack! He came back with, Ive just had a heart transplant! Oh feck says I! Anyway I held him on to the tube of the dink while the young lad climbed in and between us we hauled him in. Phew!! We calmed the bloke down, then swmbo and the young lad said we will bring his boat back to the pontoon while i took him there where the boat yard staff had congregated. The engine wouldnt start so I said to swmbo, make sure the engine is in neutral, it then started so it would appear that the bloody thing had been in gear all the tme the young man and the old man had been clinging on the transom. We got him and the whole caboodle back to the pontoon where the boat yard staff took over.
It turned out that he had been for a fish, came back in, had stepped on to the pontoon, holding the boat by a wooden rail on the coach roof which had broken off, he had then gone in and managed to grab the transom and was clinging on for his life, no life jacket (we saw it in the cuddy) and he had started shouting HELP. This is what Lau heard, the life saver was a young lad called Andy who works for Rock Powerboats. He was launching a customer boat further up and saw what happened, he ran to the pontoon, stripped off, jumped in the oggin (dont forget ebb tide was hurtling out, it was blowing a gale and was bloody cold) swam 50 metres to the boat and started supporting the chap while working out what to do next. Luckily we were there to help pick up the pieces.
The boat was called New Start with a heart drawn in between so that it read new heart start, he had had a transplant 3 years previously, and we were told later he couldnt swim.
Andy hadnt realised the boat was in gear although he said that because the engine was running he had kept his feet up out of the way.
I saw Andy this morning and said to him, "In my opinion, do you realise you saved his life" , he was very modest about it all. The local press came down later and he should be in the Daily Post tomorrow. One very brave young man who thought that what he did was just normal!
Stu
It turned out that he had been for a fish, came back in, had stepped on to the pontoon, holding the boat by a wooden rail on the coach roof which had broken off, he had then gone in and managed to grab the transom and was clinging on for his life, no life jacket (we saw it in the cuddy) and he had started shouting HELP. This is what Lau heard, the life saver was a young lad called Andy who works for Rock Powerboats. He was launching a customer boat further up and saw what happened, he ran to the pontoon, stripped off, jumped in the oggin (dont forget ebb tide was hurtling out, it was blowing a gale and was bloody cold) swam 50 metres to the boat and started supporting the chap while working out what to do next. Luckily we were there to help pick up the pieces.
The boat was called New Start with a heart drawn in between so that it read new heart start, he had had a transplant 3 years previously, and we were told later he couldnt swim.
Andy hadnt realised the boat was in gear although he said that because the engine was running he had kept his feet up out of the way.
I saw Andy this morning and said to him, "In my opinion, do you realise you saved his life" , he was very modest about it all. The local press came down later and he should be in the Daily Post tomorrow. One very brave young man who thought that what he did was just normal!
Stu
