RESCUE OPERATIONS / 18 JULY 2020

Vaal Dam – Friday, 17 July. Yacht assisted:

Jake Manten, NSRI Vaal Dam station commander, said:At 14h40, Tuesday, 14 July, NSRI Vaal Dam duty crew were activated following reports from an Oranjeville farmer who had noticed a sailing vessel yacht appearing to be in difficulty and run aground on the shore of his farm.NSRI Vaal Dam duty controllers were able to reach the sailor of the 29 foot yacht by phone and he confirmed that his yacht had run aground with only him and his Cocker Spaniel dog onboard and they required assistance.We hitched the NSRI rescue craft Harvey's Fibreglass to an NSRI crewman's private vehicle and we towed our rescue craft to the scene, approximately 30 kilometers from our NSRI base.On arrival at Oranjeville we launched our rescue craft and on arrival at the yacht we found the the yacht had run aground in shallow water levels caused by the current low water level of Vaal Dam.The sailor and his dog were safe but they needed help to get the yacht off the shallow shore bank.We rigged a towline from our rescue craft and we towed the yacht to deeper water where the sailor, from Alberton, was able to get his motor started and he proceeded under his own motor power to safe anchorage and no further assistance was required.We recovered our rescue craft which was towed back to our NSRI base at Deneysville.The operation completed at 17h00.