A yacht sinking in rough seas off New Quay earlier this month would have been reached quicker than New Quay’s current Mersey class lifeboat arrived on the scene had Pwllheli’s planned 25-knot Shannon-class lifeboat been operational, the RNLI have maintained.

Scott Barclay, a crewman aboard the yacht who said he and his colleagues undoubtedly owed their lives to New Quay lifeboatmen, suggested that if the all-weather boat had not been available rescuers would have been looking for ‘bodies and a wreck’.

But in a statement issued last week, the RNLI - who plan to replace New Quay’s all-weather lifeboat with an Atlantic 85 next year - insisted that the smaller boat was ‘twice as fast’ as the current Mersey class and ‘better suited’ to the type of rescues New Quay are called to.

“We would like to stress that no changes will happen at New Quay until Pwllheli’s 25-knot Shannon-class lifeboat is operational,” they said.

“Once Pwllheli’s Shannon is operational, this yacht would have been reached in a quicker time that the current Mersey class at New Quay reached the casualty. The way the volunteer crew handled this incident is testament to their skill and commitment.

“Should there have been concern about loss of life, it would have taken the SAR helicopters from Caernarfon, once airborne, 16 minutes to reach the position of the yacht and 34 minutes for a helicopter from St Athan.

“The RNLI is aware of speculation of how this call-out would be managed in the future and want to reassure the public that we firmly believe that call-outs such as this will be handled effectively.”

Responding to the statement, a spokesperson for the Ceredigion Lifeboat Campaign said: “Whereas it would have been possible for another station to carry out this rescue, the quickest and best solution for this incident, and for many others, would be a new 25-knot Shannon class lifeboat in New Quay.

“If the RNLI go ahead with their plan to downgrade lifeboat capability in Ceredigion, it is only a matter of time before a time-critical incident results in the loss of life.”

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