Meanwhile, a further three people were rescued from a second vessel which suffered a complete loss of power following a fire on board in back-to-back incidents on Tuesday.
Jersey Coastguard was alerted to the first incident involving a 9 metre motorboat which had struck an unknown object and was taking in water at about 5.30 pm.
The St Catherine’s inshore lifeboat was the first on the scene and after checking the vessel and crew, towed it back to Gorey Harbour by about 7.30 pm while the St Helier all-weather lifeboat also attended to provide an escort in case of need.
Meanwhile, a second call to the Coastguard came in at 8.15 pm from a 7 metre motorboat which had three people on board. The vessel had suffered engine trouble as a result of a fire near the north-east Minquiers buoy.
The St Helier all-weather lifeboat was launched and after finding the vessel using radar and direction finder, towed it back to St Helier by about 10.30 pm.
Aaron Gavey, Jersey Coastguard manager who was on duty at the time, said: ‘In this case both parties were just unlucky and had done nothing wrong, these things do occasionally happen.’
Last year Jersey Coastguard coordinated 144 search and rescue incidents and 59 of these were specifically to assist vessels in difficulty.
This year they have coordinated 79 incidents to date, of which 41 were to assist vessels, such as the two incidents on Tuesday.
