Cutting it fine on the waves

30 July 2010

Trevor Vale on the Blue Moon

A ROMFORD hairdresser was moments from disaster when the boat he was sailing nearly foundered on rocks in a treacherous stretch of water.

Trevor Vale, owner of Havering's Uppercut hairdressing group, was skippering a friend's luxury motorboat, Blue Moon, on a 120-mile crossing from Falmouth to the Channel Islands when an engine gave out.

Disastrously, the boat's second engine also stopped just as Trevor, who has an international captain's licence and is a qualified yacht master, navigated the dangerous south-west coast of Jersey.

"With daylight fading, a fierce tide along with a strong current, and the treacherous rocks only metres away, it was a battle of survival,"

Trevor said. "It was the worst of all possible situations. The chances of both engines cutting out are one in thousands, but then for them to fail at such a treacherous point was just really bad luck!"

Trevor and his crew of six were preparing to abandon ship with flares and survival equipment when a racing RIB - a large inflatable boat - answered their mayday call and pulled the craft out of danger.

St Helier Lifeboat Crew took over the rescue at around 7.45pm, tugging the boat to St Helier Port.

"It was certainly a hair-raising experience as many boats have met their end in that spot," said Trevor, who was back at work this week.

"All my training and experience came into play and we certainly felt relieved to be on dry land."

He added: "Once the problems were sorted out by marine engineers our trip to the rest of the Channel Isles and France still went ahead, so all's well that ends well."

A bug in the diesel was responsible for clogging the engines causing them to fail, Trevor explained.

Lifeboat captain Tim Gavey said: "The rescue was well executed with the experienced Blue Moon crew.