RNLI aid yachtsman and child in separate rescues

The charity volunteers on England's southern coast did double duty on Wednesday, performing two separate rescues.

Exmouth RNLI retrieved four people in two separate incidents, coming to the aid of a stranded sailor as well as a 10-year old boy and his parents.

At around 11 a.m., the group launched an inshore lifeboat to respond to reports of a yacht in trouble.

Coastwatch volunteers contacted the Coastguard after seeing a small yacht circling erratically in breaking waves near the station. The lifeboat reached the vessel shortly after launching and one of the crew boarded the yacht to supervise a tow to a nearby visitor’s mooring.

Later in the day, just after 4 p.m., the same lifeboat launched to assist a 10-year old boy and his parents whose motorboat had suffered a mechanical failure off the coast of Lympstone.

With an imprecise location for the stranded vessel and wind and wave conditions worsening, the RNLI launched an all-weather Shannon-class lifeboat around 4:50 p.m. to assist in the rescue.

The Shannon-class lifeboat located the stricken craft and towed it and its passengers to safety at the Exmouth Marina.