IT HAS been a busy start to the summer holidays for the volunteer RNLI crew in Yarmouth, with the lifeboat launching on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday, the team were called at 11.09am to assist the UK Coastguard in a shoreline search from The Needles to Freshwater Bay for a possible missing swimmer.
After a second fruitless sweep of the coast extending to Hanover Point, the lifeboat was stood down and returned to station.
At 11.58am the following morning, the lifeboat launched in response to a Mayday call from a dismasted sailing yacht.
The 9m yacht Mako, with six crew on board, lost her mast approximately 2.4 nautical miles north of The Needles.
Once on scene, an RNLI crew member was put aboard Mako to assist in the safe stowage of the mast.
The lifeboat escorted the casualty back to Yarmouth and returned to the station by 2.55pm.
On Sunday, the lifeboat was tasked with investigating a report of a drifting submerged dinghy located somewhere north west of Yarmouth Harbour.
The lifeboat commenced down tide searches and, with help from motor vessel Morvoren, located the dinghy 2.2 nautical miles east north east of the harbour.
The stricken dinghy was then towed back to Yarmouth and put ashore.