Zap Cat strikes submerged object at high speed.

Launch No: 01
Craft: Bob Savage D-520
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Location: Near the Castle Ledge buoy in the Dart estuary.

A nineteen year old sailor in a Zap Cat struck a submerged object and was thrown from his boat whilst travelling at approximately forty five knots. The impact with the water caused him to black out temporarily, tore off his lifejacket and injured his neck and leg muscles. The circling boat was observed by the volunteers at the National Coastwatch lookout at Froward Point who pinpointed the casualty some one hundred metres from his boat and alerted the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard called out the ILB and also called all vessels in the Dartmouth area. The Fishing boat Deborah Jane responded and had just picked up the casualty as the ILB arrived. A crewman from the ILB was placed on the Catamaran and she and the casualty were brought back to port. The casualty was transferred to Dartmouth Hospital.

Time

Request Received 2:43pm
Time at incident Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 0.11666666666666667 to int loses precision in /home/dartlifeboatorg/public_html/launches-detail.php (line 272) 7 minutes
Time to recovery Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 0.5333333333333333 to int loses precision in /home/dartlifeboatorg/public_html/launches-detail.php (line 272) 32 minutes
Back on Service 3:30pm

Conditions

Sea/River State Slight
Wind Direction West-Northwest
Wind Strength 10 knots

Lifeboat Crew

Shore Crew

Deputy Launch Authority

Station address

RNLI Dart Lifeboat Station
Coronation Park
North Embankment
Dartmouth
Devon TQ6 9RR

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