A yachtsman who lost his dinghy after returning safely to his moored boat in Porthmadoc Harbour sparked a search operation last night. And the incident led to a reminder the yachtsmen always to report the loss of a dinghy, to prevent false alarms and the waste of time and effort by the emergency services.
Coastguards said the elderly man who was last seen on a video surveillance camera in a tender going out into harbour. Holyhead Coastguard was called at 11.15 yesterday evening by the Harbour Master to report that a tender had been found empty with one of its oars inside and the other missing. The harbour master looked back on video surveillance footage and saw the elderly man rowing out towards a boat in the harbour at earlier in the evening.
Criccieth and Halech Coastguard Rescue Teams began a shoreline search. The Criccieth RNLI Inshore Lifeboat also launched and an RAF Rescue helicopter was scrambled. North Wales Police also joined the search.
Barry Priddis, Holyhead Coastguard Watch Manager said: 'We carried out an in depth search, bearing in mind that it was feasible that the man could be onshore or onboard a boat and that his tender could have come away from its mooring.
'Coastguards managed to establish which vessel the man was going to and at 12.45 am the man was found by the lifeboat, safe and well. He had lost his tender and was persuaded by Coastguards and lifeboatmen to come ashore on the inshore lifeboat, due to adverse weather conditions and a worsening forecast. There are currently southerly force 7 winds with a three metre swell.
'We would like to remind members of the public that they should always report the loss of vessels of this kind to the Coastguard or police in order to prevent false alarms such as the incident tonight.'
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