Fishing boat drifting in Solent towed to safety by Gafirs

The 17ft boat, which had three men on board, had lost engine power and was unable to deploy an anchor when volunteer lifeboat crews from Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service (Gafirs) were paged by UK Coastguard at around 6pm yesterday.

The crew, based at Stokes Bay, was quick to locate the vessel, just to the south east of Spitbank Fort, and they attached a tow line to the craft.

Gafirs coxswain Brian Pack said: ‘We soon found the small fishing vessel thanks to VHF radio communications and my crew quickly managed to place a tow line on the vessel so we could pull it out of potential harms way.

‘The three men on board were warm and wearing lifejackets so we decided to tow them back to Stokes Bay, where their car and trailer were waiting.’

Gafirs helped the fishermen, who had originally raised the alarm by calling 999, get their boat back on the trailer so they could then make their way home.

The call out was Gafirs’ eighth of the year.