Boat Rescue

A boat on its maiden voyage was pulled from choppy waters after a huge wave submerged it on Sunday afternoon. Phil Nertney and partner Tots Johnson had taken the Fletcher GTO power boat out on the sea at Saltburn when disaster struck. An enormous wave crashed into the boat filling it with water and causing it to partially submerge.
Phil,45, lives in Richmond, North Yorkshire, but regularly visits his parents in Redcar. A self confessed lover of extreme sports and "boys toys" like speed boats and jet skis, he said: “It was a day out that went wrong. The waves were about 4ft and we were jumping them - using them as a ramp. I should have been playing in the flats but we were having fun. I was just over-excited and not treating the sea with respect. It was all my fault for not paying attention to nature, that’s what it boils down to.
I should have looked at the sea. It was far too rough.” Luckily, nobody was injured during the incident.
After seeing the wave crash into the boat and filling it with water, local resident and estate agent Egon Robson used his tractor to help pull Phil’s boat back in. Egon, 51, said, “I live at the top on Marine Parade. I was on my balcony watching and it just went under. It was submerged and I could see he was really struggling. I watched it for a while and I thought he has got no chance of getting that out. I have a boat and a tractor down on the beach so I went down, attached a tow rope to his boat and pulled it out. It took about five minutes. He could have lost the boat, so he was quite pleased.”
Over the years Egon has helped rescue many boats and cars from the waters off Saltburn. He said, “You can get caught out easily by the sea. He was very lucky not to lose the boat.”