Ship's captain suffers head injury as 60ft motorboat sinks in stormy waters off Selsey

A captain has suffered a head injury after being saved from his stricken motorboat by the RNLI off Selsey.
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An RNLI spokesman said on Friday (November 1), the coastguard received a distress call from a 60ft motorboat with two people on board that had run aground on the Mixon reef, 1.25 miles off Selsey Bill.

The Selsey inshore lifeboat launched at 6.45pm, followed five minutes later by the all-weather lifeboat - both arriving on the scene at around 7pm.

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Two attempts by the inshore lifeboat to get near the stricken vessel were thwarted by the choppy waters, before a tow was eventually thrown to the captain.

RNLI crews work to save the stricken vesselRNLI crews work to save the stricken vessel
RNLI crews work to save the stricken vessel

After being held in place by the all-weather lifeboat for around 30 minutes to wait for the rising tide, the boat came loose from the reef but immediately began taking on much more water, with the captain reporting 4ft of water in the vessel.

Both casualties were saved from the ship by 9.15pm, but the captain suffered a head injury while being transferred and revealed a previous heart condition. Both were taken to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester at 11.15pm.

The stricken boat, named the Lady Corinne, was reported to have sank as the lifeboats returned to the station.

The crewmembers were:

RNLI crews work to save the stricken vesselRNLI crews work to save the stricken vessel
RNLI crews work to save the stricken vessel

All-weather lifeboat

- Coxswain Colin Pullenger

- 2nd Cox Rob Archibald

- Mechanic Geoff Mellett

- Sam Corcoran-Smith

- Neil Hopcraft

- Terry Healey

Inshore Lifeboat

- Helmsman Will Moir

- Andy Lee

- Max Wiseman

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