Posted by David Shelton on August 11, 2000 at 08:15:57 from 149.170.170.10 via proxy naween.mmu.ac.uk:
Thought this, from todays Telegraph (with aknowledgements), might be of interest to Tars boatowners who have run aground:
ERIC ABBOTT, possibly Britain's most accident-prone sailor, has done it
again. Not content with having to be rescued 10 times in a year by lifeboats,
he managed to steer his home-built yacht on to a sandbank yesterday.
He had been remarkably close to completing his first successful voyage. But
even as the flag standard of Rhyl Yacht Club, Clwyd, hove into view on the
early morning tide, Mr Abbott's luck was running out. He kept to port of
some marker poles, as he was supposed to. But somehow, despite the efforts
of coastguards to divert him, he still missed the river channel into the harbour.
Half an hour later, he and his 25ft craft, Plus Vat, made yet another inglorious
landfall at the end of an RNLI tow rope. It was the third time the unemployed
house painter had been rescued by the Rhyl lifeboat. In total, he has had to be
rescued 11 times and given advice or help on a further three occasions.
continues.