Coronia

The Coronia pleasure boat ran aground in Scarborough’s harbour mouth with 95 people aboard, on its way back to base.
Both the town’s lifeboats were called out. An hour before low tide, the rescue mission was complicated by the volume of traffic using the harbour and the presence of hundreds of holidaymakers on the beach.
Coxswain Wave Crookes noticed that the water around the Coronia was very shallow and called for back-up from the inshore lifeboat, whose crew of volunteers took a tow rope to the Coronia.
It took two hours for the all-weather lifeboat to pull the Coronia off the sand.
For the first hour, the ebbing tide and a strong swell across the harbour mouth worked against the rescue efforts and made life uncomfortable for the lifeboat crews.
In the meantime, most of the passengers decided to get off the vessel and walk up the busy beach.
At the end of regatta week, with about 30 yachts competing, the lifeboat was in the area of the finishing line, and numerous other pleasure boats were sailing in and out of the harbour. The Regal Lady was moored a few metres away, but in the narrow shipping channel.
“We eventually managed to tow her off, stern first, and escorted her into the harbour,” says Mr Crookes.
“With a very busy harbour mouth and a busy beach, our two lifeboat teams, along with the coastguard team, worked very well together,” he added.
The Coronia also ran aground on Saturday but managed to work itself free without assistance.
It was only the third time this year that the all-weather lifeboat has been launched.
Report on RNLI website.