The crew of a Dutch yacht had to be rescued off the coast of Lowestoft after suffering an engine failure.

A Lowestoft lifeboat was paged after the engine cut out, and the crew feared they were drifting towards the shore - potentially causing huge damage to the boat and injuring those onboard.

The 8m yacht had sailed from Ijmuiden in the Netherlands to Lowestoft and was nearing its destination when the three crew on board couldn’t get their engine started.

Eastern Daily Press: The yacht being rescued by the Lowestoft lifeboat crewThe yacht being rescued by the Lowestoft lifeboat crew (Image: RNLI Lowestoft)

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With the weather conditions worsening and finding themselves in a position where it was too deep to anchor, they contacted the UK Coastguard.

Coxswain John Fox said: "We launched our RNLI lifeboat 'Patsy Knight' just after 8am on Saturday (July 15) and located the yacht three miles off the harbour entrance and just the other side of the Holm Sands.

"The weather had picked up with a strong 25-knot southerly wind blowing and sea conditions were bumpy with a two-metre swell."

The boat was towed past Holm Sands and into the marina where emergency services attended to them.