Mike Collier, MCA fishing vessel surveyor, said the hull of The Girl Patricia, a 38-year-old netter boat owned by the Williams of Newlyn, was checked by himself and her owner the week before she sank.

The vessel's four crew were forced to jump into the Atlantic moments before she sunk 28 nautical miles north west of Land's End on May 29.

The crew was winched to safety by an RNAS Culdrose helicopter and airlifted to hospital. No one was injured.

Mr Collier said that while the reason the vessel went down will never be known, he is satisfied that she was in good condition on her last check. "It could be that a pipe broke or a valve failed; We're not likely to find out so its all down to supposition now," he said.

Tom Hicks, a fisherman aboard the Newlyn registered Ben-My-Chree which answered Girl Patricia's panpan call, said it was sickening to watch the boat go down.

"We saw her from the distance and we could see she was looking low in the water; we knew it was a matter of minutes before she sunk.

"We could hear the skipper on the radio, his voice was so full of distress and he was saying that the water was over the engine; We saw them launch the lifeboat but they didn't have time to get in, she went over so fast," he said. Michael Williams, whose son Shaun was skipper of the crew when Girl Patricia went down, expressed his thanks to the emergency services for their quick rescue time. Aboard the boat were father and son, Shaun and Aaron Williams, and Edward Jones and Rhys Fyffe.

article copyright THE CORNISHMAN 

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