Crews face challenging conditions in boat rescue

RNLI crews who rescued a stricken motor boat said "challenging" conditions forced them to abandon towing the boat to its home port of Exmouth.

Crews were called at 17:28 BST on Sunday to the 50ft (15m) boat which had lost power off Bridport in Dorset.

Weymouth RNLI towed the boat to eight miles off Sidmouth when the Exmouth crew took over.

"Unfortunately, at this stage the conditions approaching Exmouth were so challenging that it would not have been possible to safely enter the River Exe channel, so the decision was made to proceed to the next safest port of Brixham," said the Exmouth RNLI crew.

The lifeboat made the slow passage to Brixham where the casualty vessel was safely moored up.

Liam Pessel, Exmouth RNLI deputy launch authority, said: "Our crews then returned to Exmouth, finally arriving home and heading to their beds at 1am this morning.

"It was great teamwork from all the crew, including our shore crew, and a positive result in challenging conditions."

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