Six people and a dog onboard a 14ft dinghy needed help from Whitstable Lifeboat when their craft suffered engine failure on Monday evening.

The angling dinghy was 500 yards off Swalecliffe at the time.

The lifeboat was launched at 8.14pm when the vessel was reported drifting towards Hampton Pier.

The lifeboat crew found the dinghy and took it and its occupants - aged 13 to 66 - under tow, landing them ashore at Seaview Caravan Park, Swalecliffe.

The lifeboat also rescued a sailor from the two-man crew of a catamaran after the craft capsized quarter of a mile offshore on Saturday afternoon.

He was uninjured and wrapped in a survival blanket to warm up.

The catarmaran was righted with help from Whitstable Yacht Club rescue boat and sailed ashore.

In a third call over the weekend, the

lifeboat was launched at 8.09am on Monday after a member of the public reported a sailing dinghy adrift off Whitstable.

The craft, a laser 2000 dinghy, was found two miles offshore still attached to its launching trolley.

The lifeboat separated the dinghy from its trolley before towing it back to Whitstable Yacht Club.