Around the Islands: Teenager rescues four sailors after boat smashes on to rocks

Tom Harvey (16) grabbed the woman as she was going under water and helped to drag her on board his rib.

Three others were saved by the crew of the Spirit of Guernsey lifeboat. All of the group had been swept more than a mile from where their vessel went down.

Tom was out with his father on their own boat in the Little Russel channel of water between Guernsey and Herm when the alarm was raised.

Tom, whose father is a crewman on the lifeboat, said they listened in to Guernsey Coastguard on VHF Channel 20.

‘We heard them talking to the lifeboat, which was out. We heard that one of the marks was close to us so we headed over there.

He told how they began searching for the sailors, looking on the horizon, but were worried they would find bodies.

Minutes later they spotted a woman in the water.

‘I thought it was debris but it was a lady in the water, she had no lifejacket on and all her clothes. She was going under the water.

The four sailors – all Polish nationals who had sailed to Guernsey from France – were taken to hospital. They were discharged a short time later and have since left the island.

Search and rescue crews have since tried twice to raise the vessel, whose masts can be seen rising out of the sea in the Little Russel, and are due to attempt a third lift on Monday.

A GUERNSEY Muratti footballer has been sentenced to community service after he lied to the police following a car accident.

Luke Winch (23) was driving his friend’s Mitsubishi 4×4 and towing a jet ski when the trailer which was carrying it became detached.

It veered into the opposite side of the road and collided head-on with another vehicle, which was so badly damaged in the impact it was written off. The driver and three child passengers escaped unharmed.

Guernsey Magistrate’s Court heard that when police officers asked Winch if he had been driving the vehicle, he lied and claimed to have been behind the wheel of his own tipper truck nearby.

However, witnesses claimed that the jet ski was being towed by a Mitsubishi. CCTV footage later proved that the footballer had been lying.

Winch, who was not insured to drive the vehicle, was arrested and later pleaded guilty to driving without insurance and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Advocate Phoebe Cobb, defending, said that her client was embarrassed at the position he found himself in. She said he had represented the island at football and knew he was a role model for young children.

Winch was sentenced to 70 hours of community service and banned from driving for 18 months.

• A GUERNSEY driver told police his name was Mickey Mouse after he crashed a van he had taken without the owner’s consent. Steven Beausire – a 28-year-old learner driver – was driving without L-plates and without being supervised, was over the drink-drive limit and had no insurance when he drove into a parked vehicle. When stopped by police he claimed to have the same name as the famous Disney character and refused to give a breath sample. Beausire admitted the driving offences and was banned from the road for 15 months by a judge in Guernsey’s Magistrate’s Court.
• AN Aurigny jet had to abort its take off after its engine was damaged in a bird strike. The Embraer aircraft was about to depart Guernsey for Gatwick last Saturday when what is believed to have been a buzzard was sucked into the engine. An airline spokesman said that part of the engine suffered ‘quite significant damage’ in the incident.
• A DRIVER fled the scene following a car accident in Alderney. The police, volunteer fire brigade and St John Ambulance were called out following reports of an accident close to a roadside wooden carving of a puffin. They found that a car had hit a wall and rolled on to its roof. It is believed that the driver has now been traced.
• A SARK campaign group has applauded its government for setting up a business forum initiative, but has questioned whether it will achieve anything. Sark in Action for Families and Employment said it would attend the first forum meeting ‘with interest’. The forum has been set up by the Policy and Performance Committee on the back of economic development workshops in 2013 and requests from the business community. However, the group said that many issues that had been identified during the previous workshops had not been dealt with and they were unsure whether anything would be achieved by the forum.[/breakout]