EIGHT anglers and two crewmen were rescued from a fishing vessel after it ran aground off Weymouth in heavy fog.

Weymouth’s inshore and all weather lifeboats launched shortly after 8am yesterday to recover the Duchess II after it hit rocks at Newtons Cove.

The fishing vessel’s crew were returned unhurt to Weymouth harbour shortly after 10am and the boat was dragged off the rocks by the lifeboat.

It was the second emergency call the lifeboat crew responded to in as many days after a woman was seen in difficulty off the Weymouth coast at around 10pm on Monday.

On that occasion, the lifeboat crew arrived at the scene to find the woman had already been taken ashore and was being treated by paramedics.

Weymouth lifeboat coxswain Andy Sargent said he and his crewmates were able to respond to the calls within minutes despite the time of year.

Mr Sargent said: “This Christmas period has been busier than others.

“I’m full-time but the rest of the crew are volunteers but they’ve been keeping themselves available as needed.

“Christmas and the days following can often be quite a quiet time for us because people want to spend some time with their families.

“Sometimes, if people get new equipment as gifts over Christmas, they can take to the water to try it out.

“Our advice to people is, as always, to remain sensible at sea.

“Our people are volunteers so it’s really down to their goodwill that they remain available.

“We need a minimum of 10 crew members to man both boats over Christmas time and we have about 25 or 26 volunteers on call.

“Out of that pool of volunteers we hope to raise enough people to get the 10 crew members needed.

“They all carry pagers and will respond to that if they get a call.

“From the time their pager goes off to getting the boat launched should all happen in ten minutes.

“We need our crew to be within five minutes of the station in Weymouth which they all are. A few of our crew live on Portland but work in Weymouth so they’re usually very close by.

“There are no hard and fast rotas for the Christmas period.

“Regarding drinking, the rule is if you couldn’t drive a car you shouldn’t be out on the boat.”

He added: “In recent years we’ve had calls on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day and on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day but we haven’t had to deal with a call on Christmas Day.

“The calls are the same as we deal with all year round and have included all sorts, from windsurfers trying out their new toys to vessels that have broken down.

“We’ve also dealt with medical evacuations from merchant ships to red flares and Chinese lanterns over the New Year period.

“I would ask people if they do have to set flares or lanterns off to call the coastguard and let them know. Flares should only be used for emergencies not celebrations.

“My son Karl will be on call with me this year.

“My youngest is more into sports and football but Karl, my oldest, has always been into boats and watersports and it’s nice to have him with me.”