Five sailors were rescued after their 37ft yacht ran aground and then started to topple over.
The boat issued a mayday distress call shortly after becoming stuck in shallow water.
Crew were forced to wait for hours for the rising tide to provide enough depth to attempt to re-float.
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The crew made the call at 11am on Saturday (1 Nov).
They were stuck in Thorness Bay, near Cowes, Isle of Wight.
Cowes RNLI’s inshore lifeboat raced to the scene but was unable to get close enough to the vessel because of the shallow water.
Yarmouth RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat was then called in to help, arriving around 12.30pm, as reported by Need To Know.
Crews deployed their smaller Y-class boat to reach the grounded yacht and check on those onboard.
They had to wait until after 4pm — when the tide would finally be high enough to re-float her.
Three of the five crew members were ferried off the stranded yacht onto the Cowes lifeboat and taken ashore.
As the tide rose, the two RNLI teams helped deploy the yacht’s anchor.
By mid-afternoon, Yarmouth lifeboat stood down but at 4.30pm, Cowes RNLI were paged again after the yacht was found to still be stuck fast.
With deeper water now surrounding the hull, one lifeboat crew member was able to climb aboard to check for flooding and ensure the remaining two sailors were safe.
A tow line was attached to prevent the yacht drifting even closer to shore.
Finally, at around 6.45pm, after nearly eight hours of waiting, the vessel began to float.
It made it’s way into deeper water — escorted by the lifeboat back to safety at Trinity Landing, Cowes, at around 8.15pm.
No one was injured in the incident.
