UPDATE: Boat owner recounts rescue drama

The rescued crew back on dry land Picture: Eddie Mitchell

FOUR friends are fortunate to be alive after their boat sank while returning from a day’s fishing.

RNLI crews from Shoreham and Littlehampton received a mayday call from the vessel’s radio at 3.25pm today.

The 16.5ft fibreglass boat was taking on water around three miles off the coast of Littlehampton and its pumps could not cope.

A coastguard helicopter on a training exercise in the Solent was also drafted in to rescue the four – made up of two 23-year-old men, a 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman.

Shoreham's lifeboat is deployed Picture: Eddie Mitchell

The boat’s owner, the 24-year-old, from Lancing, did not want to give his name, but told the Herald he had taken the day off work to go fishing.

He said: “We’d caught some nice fish and were just coming back when all of a sudden water started bubbling at the front of the boat. In about 15 seconds we were three feet down.

“Luckily we were all wearing life jackets at the time. You didn’t really know what to think. It was a bit scary.”

The crew then made the mayday call just before the boat’s water-logged radio stopped working.

One of the crew managed to put their mobile phones in a bag, before they jumped overboard.

“We couldn’t unlock the iPhone because our hands were wet but luckily we had another one in the bag,” said the Lancing man.

At 3.38pm the Coastguard received a mobile phone call from the stranded crew, who were clinging to a buoyant yellow fuel tank, informing them the boat had sunk.