Leo Piper, left, and skipper Tristan Northway were rescued by the relief St Peter Port lifeboat after their boat’s scallop dredge snagged on the seabed. Theirs was the first local rescue initiated by the Man Overboard Guardian system, a joint venture between the RNLI and manufacturer McMurdo. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0599014)

St Peter Port’s relief lifeboat was a welcome sight for three UK fishermen adrift in a rubber raft after their boat sank.

The men had been forced to abandon the 36ft Guyona when it capsized off Sark on Tuesday night, but thanks to onboard tracking technology coastguards were aware of the emergency and able to contact St Peter Port within minutes.

Tristan Northway, 23, the Brixham-registered fishing boat’s skipper, was extremely grateful to the Guernsey crew. ‘It was great to see the lifeboat bearing down on us in our raft. We are just so glad to be here and safe,’ he said. ‘The crew were fantastic. They did a great job and made us feel reassured and welcome straight away.’

Relief lifeboat Roger and Joy Freeman was quickly at Guyona’s last-known position because it was on an exercise 12 miles away when Falmouth Coastguards alerted rescue services at 6.33pm. Mr Northway and crewmen Leo Piper, 20, and David McMurdo, 32, were in St Peter Port within an hour of the initial call and were quickly examined by Ambulance and Rescue personnel and declared fit.