A man has been rescued after his yacht ran into difficulty 28 nautical miles north of Cromer, on the north Norfolk coast.

Humber Coastguard received a distress alert from the 22ft yacht just after 8am this morning.

The skipper on board reported that he was taking on water, his sails were in
tatters and the engine had failed. The wind at the time was gusting up
to 46mph, with a 3.5 metre swell.

The
search and rescue helicopter from RAF Wattisham was sent to the scene,
along with the RNLI‘s Cromer and Humber all-weather lifeboats.

A vessel
in the area at the time also went to help and stood by the yacht until
rescue units arrived. The man was then winched on board the helicopter
and taken to hospital to be checked over as he is showing signs of
suffering from hypothermia.

Graham Dawson, Watch Manager at Humber Coastguard, said: ‘Conditions out in
the North Sea so far today have been pretty treacherous, with winds
gusting more than 40mph and a large swell.

‘However, this yacht
was well-equipped with all the necessary communications equipment, so
when he ran into trouble he could quickly raise the alarm.

‘He had on
board a VHF digital selective calling radio, which can send a distress
alert and, if linked up to GPS, an accurate position of your vessel to
the Coastguard with one touch of a button.’

Picture credit: Robby Norman/MCA