Volunteer lifesavers were called to rescue a yacht in difficulty off the Essex coast yesterday.
The Clacton Royal National Lifeboat Institution crew launched its Atlantic 85 at 3pm to help a 26ft yacht with a fuel leak.
The yacht was about a mile east of the Holland Haven radar mast in the North Sea with two people on board.
According to the RNLI’s Twitter account, the vessel was towed 12 miles back to Brightlinsea Harbour where she was moored for repairs.
The rescue comes amid warnings from the RNLI that 162 people lost their lives at the UK coast in 2016, with nearly half of those being people who didn’t even intend to enter the water.
Sudden immersion in cold water puts people at severe risk of suffering cold water shock, which triggers the instinctive but life-threatening reaction to gasp uncontrollably and swim hard, which can quickly lead to drowning.
Research commissioned by the RNLI shows over half of the UK population would follow this potentially life-threatening instinct if they fell into water.
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