Clam boat rescued by Kirkwall Lifeboat

Kirkwall Lifeboat had a lengthy callout last night, and into today, when it went to the aid of the crew of a Inverness registered clam dredger which had suffered from a fouled propellor, disabling the steering of the vessel.

Kirkwall RNLI were alerted at 7.15pm by Shetland Coastguard who requested the launch of the lifeboat to head for 18m long Georgia Dawn, which was in a position some 30 miles north-east of Duncansby Head.

An RNLI spokesman said that once on scene the lifeboat quickly established a tow, however after about 20 minutes it parted due to the vessel having no control over her steering, with the boat veering port to starboard constantly.

Another tow was quickly established and this held until the vessels were in between Mull Head, Deerness, and Rerwick Head in Tankerness, when it parted again.

The lifeboat crew once again quickly re-established a new tow and the vessels carried on to Kirkwall, arriving at 5.30am this morning.

The fishing boat left Kirkwall later in the day once the obstruction had been cleared from the propellor by a local dive team.

The lifeboat was back on station, refueled, and ready for service at 6.15am.