Six people have been rescued after a 46ft yacht got into difficulty off the coast of Northern Ireland.
Red Bay Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) spent seven hours at sea in the early hours of Saturday morning off Cushendall, County Antrim.
Belfast Coastguard received a distress call from the boat, which had been travelling from Oban in Scotland to Portugal.
The yacht lost all power and steering after making contact with a fish farm in Red Bay, in 60 knots of wind, causing it to become trapped.
A lifeboat was launched at 03:22 BST, with an inshore lifeboat also launched.
In a statement Red Bay RNLI described the weather conditions as “difficult” due to “Force 9 gusting winds, driving rain and the darkness of night”.
The RNLI crew observed that those on the yacht were safe and, given the difficult weather and sea conditions, the decision was made “for the sailors to remain onboard the yacht and for the lifeboat to standby until daylight broke” at 07:30.
At 09.30 the lifeboat crew “successfully freed the yacht from the fish farm and brought the sailors safely to Glenarm”.
Those on the yacht stayed onboard the vessel while it was towed by the RNLI, who said there were no injuries.
The yacht is now receiving repairs.
Speaking following the call out, Paddy McLaughlin, Red Bay RNLI Coxswain said: “This was a challenging call out in difficult weather conditions, but we were delighted to bring the sailors to safety, and we would like to wish them well.
“We would also like to commend our colleagues in the Coastguard and thank our crew who responded quickly in the middle of the night, launched our lifeboats in darkness and made their way to the scene in what were gale force conditions, and for then spending seven hours at sea.”
