Port St Mary RNLI were called out on Thursday afternoon to assist a yachtsman during harsh conditions in the south of the island.

A radio call was made to the lifeboat station at roughly midday from a lone yachtsman aboard a 30-foot Catamaran, in a position 25 miles south of Port St Mary.

The casualty had sailed from Bangor in North Wales, and the vessel’s sails blew out and he only had enough fuel to manoeuvre in harbour.

This led to the HM Coastguard tasking the all-weather Trent class lifeboat Gough Ritchie II, with the volunteer crew proceeding to the location at 12.30pm.

In addition to the RNLI response, a coastguard aircraft circled overhead to assist in locating the casualty, while a merchant ship - the Pacific Grebe - arrived on scene to afford some protection in the rough seas.

A spokesperson from Port St Mary RNLI said: ‘The all-weather lifeboat arrived on scene at 1.43pm and quickly resolved that a tow was necessary as the casualty had no power and was a hazard in a shipping lane.

‘A tow was established in difficult conditions at 2.10pm, and it was originally intended to take the casualty to Douglas, but the state of the sea and wind direction made progress very slow and Coxswain Morgan Guy decided to proceed to Port St Mary which ensured improved towing conditions.

‘The casualty was tied up alongside the breakwater in Port St Mary and assisted by the shore crew and local coastguards.’

Juan Maddrell, who attended his first call-out after qualifying as a crew member, said: ‘All the hours of training came together and the shout was a textbook operation, with all the crew members working well as a team.’