Sailor rescued by lifeboat after yacht dragged into rocks

Lifeboat volunteers were called out to help a struggling sailor twice in one night as he battled against bad weather in the Highlands.

RNLI Kyle was drafted in to help after the Coastguard received an emergency message from a yacht in the Plockton area that was struggling to move due to its anchor dragging.

Volunteers arrived on scene around 1.40am and found that the yacht had found a place to shelter from “windy conditions and rough seas” overnight.

Hours later, the sailor was forced to raise the alarm again after the yacht began to be dragged towards the rocks despite having two anchors and being in a sheltered location.

A decision was made to tow the yacht to Plockton harbour with the help of the Kyle and Portree lifeboats.

Jonathon MacKinnon, helm for Kyle RNLI lifeboat says “The sailor onboard the yacht was extremely experienced, and did a good job to single handedly sail the vessel through some pretty bad weather and find some shelter in Loch Kishorn.

“Unfortunately the worsening weather resulted in him ending up in a tricky situation, but our volunteer crew performed brilliantly in some pretty horrendous conditions, and enjoyed a well earned nap before they had to head out to their day jobs”.

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