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Yacht rescued after over 19 hours at sea

Mon, 11 Jul 2016

Three people had to be rescued from the Irish Sea on Friday after their yacht got lost en-route to the Isle of Man.

Three lifeboats - including rescue crews from Ramsey and Douglas - a helicopter and the Ben-my-Chree were involved in the dramatic multi-agency rescue just after 9am.

The yacht had transmitted a mayday signal after it's crew became disorientated in the rough sea - they'd had set off from Fleetwood at 2pm on Thursday but by 6am the next day still hadn't reached land.

The Ben-my-Chree also joined the rescue effort - changing its route to locate the yacht and manoeuvring alongside it to offer protection from the weather.

Ramsey Lifeboat arrived on scene at 11am and a doctor and first aider were transferred to the yacht to help the crew who were suffering from severe seasickness and exhaustion.

Volunteer crews towed the yacht away from the Ben-my-Chree with Barrow Lifeboat taking over around 20 minutes later to tow it back to Fleetwood.

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