AN ELDERLY man who almost came to grief after he tried to sail on a Scottish sea loch in a child's toy inflatable dinghy was yesterday warned by coastguards that he was lucky to still be alive.
John Stevenson, 74, from Glasgow, sparked a major rescue operation on Wednesday after he fell into the treacherous waters of Loch Ryan on the Galloway coast when the tiny dinghy capsized. He had been trying to reach his motor boat, which had drifted
out to sea.
He had set out without a lifejacket, and was using paddles cut from plastic oil drums to steer the inflatable.
Mr Stevenson managed to reach his motor boat after he was thrown into the water, but suffered a head injury as he pulled himself on board.
Yesterday one of his rescuers said: "It was obvious he was pretty embarrassed about the whole thing."
The emergency is believed to have begun after the elderly sailor tried to launch his 12ft motor boat into Loch Ryan from the shore, close to a caravan park near Cairnryan.
The boat broke free and started drifting out to sea and the pensioner grabbed hold of a child's toy inflatable to try and catch it.
He was spotted in the water by a passing motorist. A Royal Navy Sea King helicopter from Prestwick was scrambled to go the man's aid, as well as the crew of the local RNLI inshore lifeboat at Stranraer, a coastal rescue team and a fast rescue craft from an Irish ferry. Clyde Coastguard also flashed a warning to ferry companies, as the man was in their path.
The crew of the inshore rescue boat reached Mr Stevenson within 15 minutes of the alarm being raised.
Peter Stewart, the watch manager at Clyde Coastguard, said:
"It is entirely possible that, if it were not for the informant who saw the man in difficulty on the water that it could have ended in tragedy."
The full article contains 337 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
