7 June 2012  When watchkeepers at St Alban’s Head arranged a fund-raising Open Day on Sunday 3 June, they could not have dreamt that a real emergency would unfold in front of them. At about 11.30 they spotted a distress flare from a yacht dismasted three miles away. The helpless vessel was being swept by a strong tide towards the fierce St Alban’s Head race, which could well have capsized it.

The watchkeepers alerted HM Coastguard, who called on a nearby yacht to help and diverted the Portland search-and-rescue helicopter, on its way back from another incident. Crowds thronged the cliff-top as the helicopter and yacht stood by the stricken boat right under the Head until the Swanage lifeboat arrived and took her under tow. A spokesman for St Alban’s Head NCI said, ‘It was an ideal opportunity to show our visitors exactly why we are here.

Photograph By David Hill