Quick thinking by the skipper of a fishing vessel that sank averted a tragic outcome.

Darkness had fallen on Saturday night when the engine of Polaris stopped. The skipper went into the engine room and saw the vessel was taking on water.

They were 2.5 miles north west of the Calf Sound.

Realising he had just moments to raise the alarm, he sent out a mayday and alerted a fishing boat he knew was nearby.

He and a fellow fisherman - neither of whom have been named - went into the wheelhouse and deployed the life raft, but the boat sank so rapidly they were forced directly into the water.

They were both wearing life jackets and personal locator beacons, otherwise finding them in choppy seas in the dark would be almost impossible.

’The key thing was they were wearing life jackets and personal locator beacons,’ said Dave Beard from the Manx Fish Producers’ Organisation. ’Lives are lost at sea because of the fact they cannot find them. The owner [of the boat] had the sense to send the mayday and contact a boat nearby, it was half a mile away. It was a textbook rescue.’

He added: ’It’s not often there’s another boat nearby. If the skipper hadn’t acted so quickly and they hadn’t been wearing the gear, nobody would know they’d gone. The sea’s so cold you’ve got 40 to 50 minutes. After that you’re looking for a body. In dark and choppy seas, if you don’t have a personal locator beacon you’re in real trouble.’

He said it was a salutary lesson for everyone on the sea, particularly fishermen, and the MFPO is - with the RNLI - campaigning for it to be compulsory for fishermen to attend training courses run by the RNLI on safety and handling emergencies at sea.

After undergoing a major rebuild at an estimated cost of £130,000, Polaris returned to Peel last summer. She is owned by Gordon Mills.