Four people came within minutes of capsizing on Loch Ness after the sail on their yacht snapped in “dangerous” weather conditions.
Volunteers from the Loch Ness RNLI team were called out in choppy waters to rescue the occupants of the vessel earlier this week.
Ruairidh Mallows, from the Black Isle, helped raise the alarm and kept the sailors safe until the lifeboat crew arrived.
Last night, he described the moment he noticed the yacht in trouble at the famous beauty spot on Wednesday evening.
“Me and my dad were sailing from Fort Augustus. It was probably about 4.45pm when we came across them,” he said.
“At first we thought it was a capsized yacht because we could just see the hull. It was so choppy and it was going up and down in the waves.
“But when we got a bit closer we saw that it wasn’t capsized yet.
“There were four of them, I’m not sure if they were a family.
“They were waving a T-shirt and trying to get our attention. Straight away we knew something was up.
“We phoned the Coastguard but I think someone else already had as well.”
Mr Mallows believed the four people in the yacht had a lucky escape, given the conditions.
He said: “They came pretty close. It was pretty choppy and the wind was getting worse and worse. They maybe had 15 minutes to an hour. It was quite dangerous.
“But they were sitting in the cockpit and dealing with it quite well.
“We were speaking to the Coastguard on the way back. It was too windy for us to have our sail up and I think they had it up and the wood was rotten.
“We did loops around them to keep them safe in case any of them fell over, and also to reassure them.”
Mr Mallows added: “I’ve never seen that and even my dad who has been sailing for a long time had never seen that happen before.”
