Coastguards and the lifeboat crew were alerted after a yacht became stranded in shallow water yesterday.

The incident happened close to the Pleasure Pier in Weymouth at around 11.30am.

Two coastguard rescue officers from Wyke Regis Coastguard spotted the yacht whilst on patrol.

Upon closer inspection coastguards confirmed that the vessel was ‘aground on the sand’.

The team then contacted the National Maritime Operations Centre who contacted Weymouth Lifeboat.

A spokesman for Weymouth Lifeboat said: “Weymouth RNLI Inshore lifeboat was launched at 11.58am on Saturday, January 25 to reports of a yacht aground close to Weymouth Harbour entrance.

“The volunteer crew was on the scene very quickly and found a 10m yacht with six persons onboard was aground. It appeared that the yacht had trouble getting the sails up and before they could they drifted onto a sand bar close to the Pleasure Pier.

“The lifeboat crew took four of the crew off of the yacht and put them ashore at the Pleasure Pier steps. With the stranded yacht lighter, the volunteer lifeboat crew passed a line and managed to pull the yacht into deeper water where they were then able to pick up their crew from the shore and carry on.”

The lifeboat returned to station at 12.30pm where it was made ready for the next shout.