Whitby motorboat capsize.

Update: all three now dead. The Guardian’s caught up. Updates incluidng eyewitness reports and replies to points raised in sailing threads here, here,  here and here (26.11.07. new pics). OK, here’s the story from BBC North East news and a couple of eyewitnesses I spoke to: A small motor cruiser (22 footer) set off down Whitby harbour at midday. Today has been pretty rough: a northerly wind and big waves coming ashore. Whitby lifeboat crew saw the boat heading for sea and hailed it on the VHF emergency channel with a view to telling them to turn back. No response. The motorboat got 100 yards out, got into distress and was pitchpoled (capsized end-over end) in big waves and sank. Three people were seen in the water. Whitby lifeboat got out is minutes and recovered two men off the West Pier (the left hand one on the bottom pic, the woman was pulled from the water on Whitby east side below. Witesses saw one man being ‘worked on’ by paramedics on the stern of the lifeboat for 40 minutes, until he was taken to James Cook Hospital by Air Ambulance which landed on Tate Hill Pier. He is critical.

Update 18.10. The British media are a disgrace: two dead, one in trouble, a fantastically brave rescue by Whitby lifeboat and the SAR helo, Guardian, Times and Independent nothing as yet, BBC news website a good report, Telegraph a sketchy one. Here are the waters those people went into and the lifeboats braved:

A spokesman said that the swell was 20-30 ft high. This is what Whitby harbour entrance looks like with 20 foot swells. Just what were the people thinking of when they went through those pier ends? More pics of the North Sea at its worst here and here. If the reports are correct, that is something like what they motored into. In a 24 footer.

They may not look much photographed from 300 feet up a cliff, but those waves are big.