Loss of VHF aerial with mast meant rescue was 'lucky'

2:40 AM Mon 4 Oct 2010 GMT

'Intended route of the yacht Lily' .

Having his VHF aerial attached to the mast and being without an emergency VHF aerial meant that a sailor was 'lucky' to be rescued last week in seas off the Isle of Man, when his emergency flare was fortuitously sighted by a passing tanker. The cruising sailor found himself drifting on his vessel 30 miles south-west of the Island with a snapped mast and broken engine. At the time the yacht, Lily, was en route from Milford Haven, West Wales, to the Island, where the owner lives in Douglas. The mast of the yacht snapped in half and her engine ...

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by Lee Mylchreest