SWANAGE’S all-weather lifeboat was called 12 hours after a dramatic rescue, in what transpired to be a related incident.

A passing boat had reported coming across a partially submerged yacht and the Swanage volunteers were tasked to investigate at 4.10pm on Monday, at a position roughly five nautical miles south of Hengistbury Head.

The vessel was found drifting quite rapidly back towards Swanage, only about 18” of the bow was above the water.

The suspicion was that this vessel was the fishing boat from the incident earlier in the day, when a fisherman was rescued after his boat struck an object and began sinking.

Volunteers managed to get a towline attached and attempted a slow tow which was successful and much more of the vessel became visible allowing a positive identification to eventually be made.

A plan was made to attempt to hand the vessel over to a barge from Poole Harbour. A rendezvous was plotted close to Hook Sands in shallow water and the barge was connected to the stricken fishing boat and craned it clear of the water.

The crew stood down at 9.43pm.