TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Friday April 7 1995

Island owner survives in air pocket as boat slowly sinks

A Campbeltown man told this week of his nightmare trapped for an hour inside his slowly sinking boat.

Dick Gannon, 44, of Dunaskomel House, was transporting building materials to the island of Sanda, which he owns, last Wednesday afternoon on board his 27-foot boat Gille Brighde. But after running into a treacherous combination of wind and tide Mr Gannon started thinking about turning back.

Because the boat was starting to ship water on the open back deck near Johnston’s Point, he opened the seacocks to drain her.

‘The situation was already a bit nasty but from then on things got worse,’ Mr Gannon told the Courier.

‘The starboard seacock started emptying its side, but the port was backfilling the boat. She is a very perky, game boat, but she was going dead in the water and starting to list.’

Mr Gannon was about to shut off the seacocks and try to bail the water out the back when the boat started to roll.

He jumped back into the forward wheelhouse and grabbed the VHF radio mic and managed to shout ‘Mayday, Gille Brighde’ twice on the emergency channel.

‘I prayed to God that the Coastguards had heard me, and no stronger signal had gone out over the top of mine and blocked it out,’ said Mr Gannon.

The Coastguard picked up Mr Gannon’s Mayday and a farmer who had seen the boat going over had phoned them with its position just off The Bastard.

The Campbeltown lifeboat was launched and a Royal Navy helicopter from HMS Gannet at Prestwick was scrambled.

Auxiliary Coastguards from Campbeltown and Carradale were sent to the scene in case a shore search was needed. Meanwhile, the boat had settled with her bow pointing towards the sky and was slowly sinking.

Mr Gannon had wedged himself using his hands and legs as high up the boat as he could with his head in the fore-peak so that only his legs were under the water.

After about 20 minutes, the helicopter arrived at the scene and shortly after that Mr Gannon heard the voices of the lifeboat crew.