Vessel towed back to safety after stalling at sea

Ot­to Car­ring­ton

A 50-foot sail­ing ves­sel has been towed safe­ly back Ch­aguara­mas this morn­ing af­ter a co­or­di­nat­ed mar­itime re­sponse in­volv­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard, North Post Ra­dio Sta­tion and the Ma­rine Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The ves­sel, SV Vester Kyesten, was re­port­ed dis­abled af­ter ex­pe­ri­enc­ing me­chan­i­cal prob­lems ap­prox­i­mate­ly eight miles north of the First Bo­ca of Trinidad. With no en­gine pow­er, the ves­sel was at risk of drift­ing away from the Bo­ca due to pre­vail­ing cur­rents.

The dis­tress call was re­ceived through North Post Ra­dio Sta­tion and com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard, which sub­se­quent­ly alert­ed the Ma­rine Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go to as­sist.

The Coast Guard de­ployed a ves­sel to the lo­ca­tion where the yacht was sight­ed, while a Ma­rine Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion ves­sel re­spond­ed to pro­vide tow­ing as­sis­tance.

Pres­i­dent of the Ma­rine Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Jesse James, said com­mu­ni­ca­tion was es­tab­lished with the ves­sel in dis­tress, al­low­ing res­cuers to mon­i­tor its po­si­tion and co­or­di­nate the re­sponse.

The res­cue ves­sel suc­cess­ful­ly reached SV Vester Kyesten, se­cured a tow line and be­gan tow­ing the dis­abled yacht to­wards Ch­aguara­mas.

The ves­sel is cur­rent­ly un­der tow and is ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in Ch­aguara­mas at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 10:30 a.m. Fur­ther as­sis­tance may be re­quired once the yacht reach­es the har­bour area.

No in­juries have been re­port­ed. The cause of the yacht’s me­chan­i­cal fail­ure has not yet been dis­closed.