Dismasted off the Lizard

Richard Ayres makes his first Mayday call when his yacht is dismasted and prop fouled close to the Manacle rocks

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Enjoying a perfect start to our Isles of Scilly adventure, my two friends and I set off aboard my 42ft yacht Blue Dolphin after a good night on a mooring in Helford Passage. The sun was up, and we had a decent 15 knots of wind with a moderate sea.

On 29th April this year, we left early to catch the fair tide and plotted a course to clear the Manacles Cardinal buoy, which was now just abaft the beam. We were thinking about engaging the autopilot and settling down for the first brew.

We were under full main and genoa, and enjoying that feeling of a boat sailing well, when there was an almighty bang and my 2013 Southerly 420 shuddered as though struck by an enormous force.

As I looked about to see if we had hit something, a large object passed my head at speed, taking off the starboard winch from the coaming.

Seconds later, the entire rig was in the water to leeward, with the Cardinal about 100m behind. The 54ft mast was still held by the starboard side shrouds, its foot on the deck and smashing the toe rail and stanchions with every wave.

The boom, responsible for taking off the winch, was floating alongside the mast, with full main attached. We all transitioned immediately into emergency mode, and my first thought was to use the very high frequency (VHF) radio to put out a digital selective calling (DSC) distress alert, then a Mayday call.

Despite a long sailing career, I'd never needed to do this before, but like most sailors I had rehearsed it, and the words were neatly printed on a card by the radio: "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! This is yacht Blue Dolphin..."

Mayday... silence

There was silence. I repeated the Mayday again, still nothing. Then it dawned on me that the VHF antenna was on top of the mast and now well under the water.

One of my experienced crew was quicker than me on the uptake and was already on his mobile dialling 999, fortunately with immediate success.