The volunteer crew of Rhyl's All-weather lifeboat, were paged at 11.21am on Saturday (13 May) in response to a report that a person had been taken ill on a vessel just off the coast.

The skipper of the local sports fishing boat 'Merlin' from Rhyl, reported a sick passenger on board his boat, some 5 miles off Rhyl.

He immediately put out a 'Mayday' call for assistance, which was received by the Coastguard co-ordinating centre at Holyhead, who paged Rhyl lifeboat crew, and asked for helicopter assistance from the coastguard helicopter base at Caernarfon airport.

A local windfarm support boat 'Iceni Valour' also responded to the Mayday, and was on scene first. The sick person was transferred to the Iceni boat, as there was more room on the deck for a casualty transfer to the helicopter.

Rhyl lifeboat arrived on scene and transferred a crew member on to the 'Iceni Valour' to assist the winchman prepare the casualty for lifting into the helicopter.

This was completed successfully and the casualty was flown to Bangor hospital for treatment.

The crew member was transferred back to the lifeboat; the Iceni boat returned to windfarm duties; and the lifeboat returned to station at 12.40pm.