Two rescued as fishing boat sinks off Manx coast

The Douglas all-weather lifeboat was involved in the rescue

Two people have been rescued from a fishing boat that was sinking off the Manx coast.

Douglas Lifeboat launched the rescue effort after being alerted by the coastguard that a vessel was taking on water at about 13:30 GMT on Wednesday.

Efforts were initially made to keep the 50ft (15m) fishing boat, which had lost power and communications, afloat and tow it to shore.

But as the situation deteriorated the boat's skipper was transferred to the lifeboat before the fishing vessel sank about 4 miles (6.4km) off Laxey at shortly before 19:00.

A spokeswoman for the RNLI said after reaching the vessel the lifeboat crew had "deployed a salvage pump to mitigate the flooding".

During the operation one lifeboat volunteer went aboard to help with setting it up pump, while one of the fishing boat crew was transferred to the lifeboat.

Deteriorating situation

The RNLI crew had initially made the decision to tow and called for back up from the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service to provide extra pumps for their return to Douglas Harbour.

However, minutes into the tow operation, the situation deteriorated and the skipper was taken off the stricken vessel, which then sank.

The lifeboat crew then collected ropes, baskets and a life raft from the the fishing vessel that remainin in the area before heading back to shore.

Volunteer coxswain Peter Cowin said although the boat had "unfortunately sank", the crew was "glad we were able to bring back all the people onboard".