Yacht thief caught after sailing into force 8 storm

A man has been put behind the bars after setting out to the sea in a yacht with no prior sailing experience. Cathal Matthew sailed fifty miles out to sea after slipping the £6000 yacht from Portknockie Harbour.

At last, he ended up having to be saved when he got grounded in a fierce gale force 8 storm in the Moray Firth. The weather was very bad. Therefore, the coastguard teams settled not to put any crews at risk saving him in stormy sea atmospheric condition that were getting rougher and rougher. After drifting out to an oil field next to a rig, he dealt to have the attention of a captain of a ship that took him on board the vessel to safety harbor home.

On Thursday, at Elgin Sheriff Court, Matthew admitted that he stole the Tradewind as well as a car. Fiscal depute Kevin Corrins stated that Matthew, stole a £17000 silver Audi S5 after he took it for a test drive.

On 14th November, he left the Inverurie region and drove the car around Aberdeenshire before going to Portknockie in Moray. He dumped the car there. He then took off with a yacht from the harbor and set out on the sea. The captain of a standby ship later seen him was in difficulty about thirty-five miles east of Wick.

A rescue craft was introduced to help Matthews. When the boat reached the thief, he said its crew that he stole the yacht and he wanted to get off it.

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2016-03-24

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