THE Ryde Inshore lifeboat was launched on Saturday (May 8th) after having been alerted to the presence of a small motorboat that had been caught on the sandbank at Ryde sands.

The station’s inshore lifeboat Ryde Rescue One, launched by coxswain Andy Cheetham, and crewed by two others helped to re-float the casualty vessel. She was than escorted by into deeper water just after 1pm today.

The vessel (a Maxim 20) had 6 persons on board, but none of them had life jackets available. The ships crew also had no vhf radio and they were not in possession of the local area chart which would have clearly shown the location of the sandbanks.

The Crew of Ryde Rescue 1 offered some strong words of advice re safety at sea, before the vessel returned to her home port of Southsea.

A Ryde Rescue spokesman said “It is amazing how many people are prepared to take risks by going afloat without any PPE (Personal Protection Equipment). Incidents like these could be avoided so easily with a little bit of preparation.”