Workington RNLI was called out on Friday night to help a yacht lost in the Solway Firth in an eight-hour operation.
A helicopter and RNLI crews from Ramsey in the Isle of Man and Kirkcudbright was also involved in the operation.
Workington RNLI was alerted by HM Coastguard in Belfast at 4pm that a 25ft yacht, which had left Maryport heading towards the southern coast of the county, was lost.
The yacht had one crew member, a man, who had left Maryport earlier that morning and thought he was around 15 miles off the coast of Workington.
The Shannon class Dorothy May White was launched and while en route, the Coastguard requested that Ramsey RNLI and the Coastuard rescue helicopter 199 from Prestwick to help locate the yacht.
Workington RNLI reached the scene at around 5pm and managed to speak to the man via a mobile phone.
Workington’s crew directed the helicopter until the yacht was sited five miles south of Burrow Head in south west Scotland.
The Dorothy May White reached the yacht at 5.45pm and the helicopter and Ramsey lifeboat were stood down.
The occupant was safe and well and the lifeboat began to tow the yacht to Whitehaven.
But the yacht lost propulsion and weather conditions meant they had to divert to Kirkcudbright.
The RNLI crew there was due to rendezvous with Workington at around 8pm, in the mouth of river behind Little Ross lighthouse.
Low water levels meant this proved impossible and the Workington crew had to wait until 9pm then meet with the local Coastguard teams at the town’s quay, where the yachtsman was transferred and assessed.
