On Thursday 2 May at 3:47am, the volunteer crew were tasked by HM Coastguard to a Belgium 12m sailing yacht that was reported to be drifting near Broadness, Kent.
Thames Commander Andy Colley said, ‘This patch of the River Thames is a busy shipping channel with very large cargo vessels and could be a concern to navigational traffic.
When tasked it was unknown if there were any casualties involved, but we arrived to find 5 persons on board and their vessel at anchor near the shipping lane.
The RNLI volunteer crew communicated with the skipper of the vessel to perform a welfare check to ensure there were no injuries on board of which there were none.
The Skipper of the vessel said, ‘At first we lost power to the engines, we were unable to make way with sails due to no wind and when we were making contact with Port of London via radio, we were struck by lightning which took out all communications and power.
RNLI’s Thames Commander Andy added, ‘There was a clear electrical burning smell so we advised for them to disconnect their batteries to prevent further damage or fire.
Gravesend’s lifeboat crew then set up a tow to ensure their vessel was safe from further incidents and returned them to a place of mooring in Gravesend so they could fault find and fix accordingly.
The sailing yacht was the first vessel sent in advance on its way to London as part of a large flotilla from Belgium.
