A leisure sailor from Yorkshire has been telling of the part he and his crew played in a recent coastal rescue (on Sunday April 9) near Start Point.

Events manager Mark Johnson lives in York but he comes down to sail every two weeks as his yacht is berthed at Sutton Marina in Plymouth.

Mark takes up the story: ‘‘Myself, and my crew were on my 40 foot yacht ‘Gem’ were sailing from Dartmouth back to Salcombe and had just rounded quite a heavy sea at Start Point when we saw a much smaller vessel sailing the other way .

‘‘We all looked at each other in slight disbelief as the affect of quite a strong wind and two tides meeting made the sea rough .

‘‘We sailed on towards Prawle Point to hear 10 minutes later a Mayday Mayday Mayday.

“We quickly realised that the Mayday was being sent from the small yacht, but his signal was weak and Falmouth Coastguard couldn’t hear him .

‘‘We then turned round back into the rough sea as we had no choice but to try and offer assistance.

‘‘One of my crew, former nuclear submarine commander Stephen Upright, used our radio set to talk to Falmouth Coastguard and keep them up to speed with what was happening.

‘‘Stephen was able to use his high-level Royal Naval experience to provide all the necessary information and keep a cool head.

‘‘We got back to being within 50 meters of the casualty in rough seas, and ‘stood by’ until the lifeboat was spotted 25 minutes later and once the lifeboat had spotted the casualty we were give permission to ‘stand down’ , and proceed with out passage to Salcombe.

The National Coastwatch Institution had spotted the stricken from their cliff top lookout after having being guided by the Start Point lighthouse guide.

Mark adds: ‘‘We were really in the thick of it the situation of two tides clashing gives spiky waves and literally a wall of water.’’

HM Falmouth Coastguard Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre covers a huge area and occasionally they can’t pick up a usable signal because of things such as the low power of the radio on the boat or coverage ‘shadows’. In this case they rely on help from vessels that are closer to help pass messages between the vessel in trouble and the coastguard. This is known as a ‘Mayday Relay’ and was the role played by the crew of the ‘Gem’ along with keeping their eyes on the yacht until the arrival of the lifeboat.

‘‘Back in Plymouth we saw the boat that was in trouble.

‘‘She was a 21 foot yacht and the crew were foreign.’’

Mark and his crew were happy to have been in the right place at the right time to be of help in what could have had a tragic outcome.