Crew of wrecked yacht Don't Panic found ON LAND after sparking major sea search off Scarborough

Lifeboat crews, coastguards, a search helicopter and police searched several miles of shoreline for the crew of the yacht Don't Panic after it was spotted crewless, bobbing about on a gentle swell by the rock shelf off Marine Drive, Scarborough earlier today.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: “Police assisting the Coastguard with a search have located two people safe and well in Scarborough.”

The yacht Don't Panic being rescued after it was discovered run aground off Scarborough's West Pier with no sign of its crew Picture: Dave Barry/RNLI/PA Wire

After several hours of searching for the sailors concerns had mounted, but it is believed the sailors may have escaped from the stricken vessel before it was spotted.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: "We always advise anyone who finds themselves in trouble at sea or at the coast calls 999 and ask for the Coastguard."

A Scarborough RNLI spokesman has confirmed the vessel was the same one which became stricken in the same area last June with no safety equipment, such as lights, a VHF radio, GPS or flares on board.

The yacht, known as Don't Panic, had set sail from Scarborough on Monday with two people on board.

As the search operation got underway shortly before 6am today, an all-weather lifeboat from Scarborough RNLI towed the wreckage of the yacht from the sea wall around the headland between the town's two sandy bays to the West Pier while an inshore lifeboat and coastguard helicopter searches for the missing sailors.

A Martime and Coastguard Agency spokesman said: "No one was on the yacht, which was boarded and towed back to the harbour by the Shannon all-weather lifeboat, which had a crew of five.

"The inshore lifeboat (ILB) and coastguards searched several miles of shoreline for the yacht crew, assisted by the coastguards' Sikorsky search-and-rescue helicopter. The police were also involved in the search."

The yacht Don't Panic being rescued after it was discovered run aground off Scarborough's West Pier with no sign of its crew Picture: Dave Barry/RNLI/PA Wire

The ILB searched the coast from Burniston in the north to Cayton Bay in the south, but nothing was found and it was stood down at 9.25am.

The search operation was launched less than a year after the skipper of Don't Panic was rescued after issuing an SOS to a lifeboat crew with his mobile phone.

It remains unclear if the vessel was being skippered by the same person in both incidents.

In a 999 call for the Coastguard last June, the sailor said he thought he was a quarter of a mile off the North Yorkshire coast and the boat’s engine had a mechanical failure.

At the time, Dave Barry, of Scarborough RNLI, said had the skipper not got a phone signal his vessel could have been blown him into the shipping lane, putting him in grave danger.

Following last year's incident, Mr Barry said Don't Panic had no safety equipment, such as lights, a VHF radio, GPS or flares.

Lifeboat crews found the yacht by radar, a mile and a half east of the harbour, and homed in on it with the help of the light on the skipper’s phone. The yacht was towed back to Scarborough.

After the incident last June, John Senior, lifeboat operations manager, said: “It is imperative that any leisure craft putting out to sea should have a fully functional VHF marine radio and flares as a bare minimum.

“There is no legal requirement for leisure craft, but we would strongly advise that such vessels always have a means of sending out a distress call other than a mobile phone, which should be used only as a back-up.

“We also recommend that if you are going at night or dusk, you have lights and have informed someone ashore of your intentions.”