A COUPLE were shocked to find a shipwrecked sailor at their home during the early hours of Tuesday.

The German seaman had struggled to their house, in Coast Drive, Greatstone, shortly after midnight, suffering with a broken rib and hypothermia.

He had rowed ashore as his yacht, called Moonstrike, began to sink during a trip from Chichester to Dover.

Pete Legg, senior watch manager with Dover Coastguard, said: "We had a call from a member of the public after they'd had a knock on the door from a man in a distressed state.

"He'd rowed ashore from a sinking yacht. We sent a coastguard unit there and the police also attended. The sailor had a broken rib, was hypothermic, wet and distressed. He was taken to the William Harvey Hospital at Ashford.

“We found the boat aground, not sunk. Dungeness lifeboat re-floated the yacht and took it to Dover."

A member of the coastguard team went to the hospital to tell the sailor, Arthur Friske, that his boat had been recovered and the German was released after treatment.

On Tuesday morning coastguards took the sailor to his boat to assess the damage, but were struggling to communicate with the man, as he doesn't speak much English.

Mr Legg said: "We are helping him as much as we can as he is a shipwrecked mariner."