Teacher describes fishing boat rescue ordeal

Dave Herschel rescued a man whose boat had sunk near Sark

A sailing teacher who saved a man from a sinking fishing boat said he had "never seen anything like it".

Dave Herschel, director of Isle Maritime Training, had been heading to Sark on-board his boat with two others on Tuesday when he said he saw a "big plume of white smoke" near the island's west coast.

He said at first he thought it was someone on a kayak but on closer inspection realised it was a man clinging to the bow of his fishing boat before he managed to pull him out of the water.

A maritime safety investigation had been ordered by the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents to "identify the cause of the accident and to prevent reoccurrence".

The fishing vessel sunk off the west coast of Sark on Tuesday

Describing the rescue, Mr Herschel said: "I motored up to him shouting 'is there anybody else?'.

"That was the first thing I said to him as I didn't know if anyone was trapped in the hull.

"He'd been in the water a short while when his boat tipped over and he was cold and wet and pretty distraught at watching his livelihood slip beneath the waves.

"I've been doing this for 30 years, teaching people how to sail, and I've never seen anything like that."

The boat was brought back to St Peter Port

St Peter Port RNLI returned the man to the shore where he was assessed by paramedics, who found no significant injuries on him.

The 5.5m (18ft) vessel was partially refloated by commercial divers and towed back to St Peter Port, but attempts to lift it out on Tuesday failed, said the coastguard.

On Wednesday, Guernsey Ports used a crane to successfully pull the vessel out of the water.