Two sailors winched to safety near Skegness on Tuesday suffered no injuries after their yacht began taking on water and suffered engine failure.

Humber Coastguard received a Mayday call just after 7.30am from the Dolphin of Rhu, alerting rescue crews to their precarious situation.

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The pair had been heading to Grimbsy from Wells along the Norfolk coast when things took a turn for the worst.

After calculating the boat’s position, two lifeboats from Humber and Skegness were sent to find the vessel, along with a coastguard rescue helicopter.

Other boats nearby had also heard the Mayday call, with two local wind farm support vessels offering assistance to the stricken yacht.

Windcat 9 attached a tow line to the yacht and began making their way to Grimbsy until further help arrived.

Coxswain Ray Chapman told the Lincolnshire Echo: “We have an excellent working relationship with the Windcat crews and they were a huge help, quickly locating the casualty and providing us with a more precise location.

“They were also able to reassure the two guys on board that help was on its way.”

Once the lifeboat was on scene, two volunteers were transferred onto the yacht to assess the situation.

Shortly after, the tow was transferred to Skegness lifeboat, while the crew were taken aboard the lifeboat from Humber and airlifted to safety.

The pair were cold and wet, but hadn’t suffered any injuries during the incident.

The coastguard’s Jolene Smith said: “These people did the right thing by calling the coastguard in as soon as they could.

“We recommend that where possible, all vessels within 30 miles of the shore, are fitted DSC VHF, a charged mobile phone, flares, powerful torch and Personal Locator Beacon. It’s also good to be very familiar with how everything works so that if an emergency happens you can quickly locate and use what you need to.

“To help us to find you, if you do get into difficulty, consider joining the MCA’s voluntary CG66 safety identification scheme.”