Lifeboats and tug help stricken cargo vessel

RNLI volunteers from Kyle of Lochalsh and Mallaig were called out just after 7.30am on Sunday after a cargo vessel’s rudder broke in the Kylerhea narrows.

Kyle lifeboat Spirit of Fred Olsen launched at 7.44am, just eight minutes after the first alert, and sped towards the 1,200-tonne CEG Universe.

The 65m vessel was using its anchor to try to hold position in the very strong tidal currents through the narrows.

The lifeboat arrived on scene at 7.53am and put crew members aboard the stricken vessel to assess the situation, while awaiting the arrival of Mallaig’s larger Severn-class lifeboat.

Due to the eight knots of tide which runs through the channel, and the fact the cargo vessel’s rudder was jammed full to port, it was decided to wait for a tug to help with the tow.

While waiting for the arrival of the SD Kyle of Lochalsh from the BUTEC base in Kyle, the casualty vessel’s anchor brake failed and the vessel began to drift backwards.

Mallaig and Kyle lifeboats took the cargo vessel under tow and held it against the current until the tug arrived on scene at 10.15am.

The SD Kyle of Lochalsh and the two lifeboats then manoeuvred the cargo vessel, which was on its way to Gairloch with a load of road salt, through the narrows and towed it into Kyle Harbour at 12.10pm.

The lifeboats were then stood down and Kyle lifeboat returned to station to be refuelled and made ready for service.

Kyle of Lochalsh RNLI spokesman Andrew MacDonald said the operation to rescue the vessel took place in good weather with a flat calm sea, otherwise it would have been even more difficult.

‘Because of where the vessel was, with an eight-knot tide running, when the anchor brake failed it meant the two lifeboats were struggling to hold it in position in the channel,’ he told the Lochaber Times.

‘The Mallaig lifeboat is technically powerful enough to tow a vessel that size but with the tide running across and the rudder jammed to port it made it very hard to control and that’s why we called out the tug.’