Three men, one with no buoyancy aids were plucked from the freezing waters of the Forth after a watersports trip went horribly wrong.
The RNLI Queensferry Lifeboat was called out by the Coastguard at 1.41pm today to go to the aid of two people in the water from a broken down speedboat off Dalgety Bay. The crew of helmsman Derek Sutton, Chris Still and Martin Crawford sped to the scene and located an 18 ft. speedboat “Absolute Zero” which had suffered engine failure with seven people aboard.
The RNLI Lifeboat crew located the two men reported to be in the water, skipper Matt Nightingale (36) from Shotts and 42 year old Lee Green From Glasgow, Green was struggling in the metre and a half swell and winds gusting to force five in the freezing waters of the Forth over half a mile from shore.
The crew got the two men aboard the Lifeboat and a very relieved Lee Green, suffering from hypothermia said :-“I thought I had had it”. It was then that the crew were told of another man in the water and realised that he had no buoyancy aid. Initially he could not be seen.
The Lifeboat located Richard Yanitsaro (21) about a half a mile from the boat. He was going under when he was dragged from the water by rescuers in the nick of time suffering badly from hypothermia. The crew rushed them to the shore at Dalgety Bay Boat Club. Lifeboatman Chris Still stayed with them until the ambulance arrived to take the two men suffering from hypothermia to St.Margaret’s Hospital, Dunfermline for treatment. The RNLI Queensferry Lifeboat crew then returned to the broken down speedboat which had drifted a mile and was in danger of running aground at St. David’s Bay.
The seven people aboard had witnessed the Lifeboat rescuing the two men near the boat, but could not see the rescue of Richard, so when the Lifeboat arrived back to pick them up they were relieved that the lifeboat crew had managed to locate and rescue their colleague.
The Lifeboat lashed the speedboat alongside and safely towed her to Dalgety Bay.
