Helicopter and RNLI called to fishing boat ‘Mayday’ call south of Eastbourne

The RNLI lifeboat ‘Esme Anderson’ was launched at 11.56pm on Saturday, January 4 to assist Solent Coastguard in response to a ‘Mayday’ call from a fishing vessel 16 miles south of Eastbourne.

A spokesperson for the RNLI confirmed that the vessel also had a man overboard and machinery issues in rough seas.

A spokesperson for the RNLI said: “Our volunteers quickly assembled and launched the Trent Class All-Weather Lifeboat ‘Esme Anderson’ leaving Sovereign Harbour into driving rain and two to three metre waves. They made the best speed possible in the poor weather conditions to the fishing boat’s location and were joined by the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter from Solent.”

The spokesperson added that, after arriving on the scene, volunteers managed to recover the person who had gone overboard.

The spokesperson said: “Arriving on scene, the crew aboard the fishing vessel had managed to recover the person who had gone overboard on to their boat and were fixing their machinery issues.

“After discussions with Solent Coastguard, both the lifeboat and rescue helicopter were stood down. The lifeboat returned to the station and was refuelled with the final volunteers leaving the station just after 4am.”

The callout marked Eastbourne RNLI’s first tasking of 2025 after making 174 taskings in 2024 and assisting over 75 people during their rescue operations at sea in and around the town.