The story behind the Westerly on the rocks

Whoops!

I feel for the skipper of this 34ft Westerly Seahawk bilge keeler, which went very hard aground and was left high and dry on Sunday in the Firth of Forth – a bit of a mistake that ended up being all too public.

The photo was taken by crew from the Queensferry RNLI lifeboat, who were called out at about breakfast time on Sunday. The yacht, Sardilou, had four crew on board and was stuck fast. They reported that they were sailing from Aberdour and were approaching Inchcolm Island in rough seas when they were hit by a 30 knot gust and ended up on the Meadulse Rocks.

The crew were taken off and the yacht was anchored and lines taken to the rocks. The boat wasn’t damaged and two of the RNLI crew were able to tow her off on the rising tide and take her safely to Port Edgar Marina.