Incidents in the English Channel.
Documented sailing emergencies in the English Channel — 3 records, each with sources, lessons, and links to the SeaWise procedures involved. Search by the water you're about to sail.
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In early August 2026, a sloop ran aground on rocks at St Leonards-on-Sea, near Hastings on England's East Sussex coast, and sank. The skipper swam ashore unaided and unharmed; the cause of the grounding was not reported.
On the night of 27 July 2026, a yacht sailing single-handed in the Solent suffered a complete battery failure, losing all navigation lights. GAFIRS volunteers spotted the unlit boat by near-full moonlight off Gilkicker — the skipper was using a torch to warn other traffic — and towed it to safety at Gosport Marina.
On the stormy first night of the Transat Café L'Or, 25–26 October 2025, the Ocean Fifty trimaran Inter Invest capsized in roughly 25-knot winds and 2.5-metre seas off the Cotentin, near Guernsey — one of three Ocean Fifties to flip that night. All the skippers were rescued safely, some winched out by helicopter in the dark. The light, fast trimarans proved vulnerable to the gusts.