The skipper of the vessel was left rather red faced after they got stuck under a bridge while travelling down the Norfolk Broads on Thursday
A boater had a rather embarrassing start to the day on Thursday after a vessel they had hired got stuck under a bridge at high tide.
The incident, which happened along the Norfolk Broads in Great Yarmouth, saw the boat become wedged under a footbridge at around 10am.
Related articles
An RNLI lifeboat, police and the coastguard from Gorleston were all called to the scene to help the two crew onboard.
When they arrived, one crew had managed to get off safely and rescue crews then worked to get the second person off the vessel and placed a Broads Beat officer onboard.
As there was no danger to life, crews waited for authorisation from hire craft company Barnes Brinkcraft before attempting to recover the boat.
RNLI crewman Dave Kilpatrick said “The bridge is an old railway bridge that goes across the River Bure. You’ve got your main iron beams and you’ve got a couple of wooden beams as well, so if you look face on to the bridge you’ll think that you’ll get under it, but actually the bridge is almost three quarters of a foot lower because of the wooden beams.
The boat must have thought they’d just get through with the flood tide behind them and he went underneath and made contact with the wooden beam and because of the force of the tide that goes up the River Bure where he was, that pinned them against the wooden beam.”
After several attempts, she came free with some damage to the cabin roof and associated fixings.
The vessel was then secured on the River Bure before employees from the hire company came to assess the damage.