A lifeboat crew had to act quickly to save a yacht with two people on board from crashing into a ship.

RNLI Sheerness volunteers were called shortly after 7pm yesterday (July 23) when they were alerted by the UK coastguard.

The boat was travelling from Maldon in Essex to Hoo Marina when it became overwhelmed by both powerful winds and a strong ebb tide in the Medway Estuary.

The conditions therefore meant the boat was unable to move against the tide.

The all-weather lifeboat (ALB) was tasked with rescuing the two people onboard the 27ft vessel.

It was found the craft only had a small, outboard engine as back-up to use – something which made it struggle to travel around Garrison Point.

This left the boat in a dangerous position in the middle of the shipping channel just as a large car carrier had left Sheerness Docks.

A spokesman for the RNLI said: “It would have been more than likely that the boat would have hit the ship had nobody intervened.

“Because of its size, the ship wouldn’t have seen them so it could have ended up rather nasty.

“The conditions would have meant the boat had no steering to get out of the way.”

The lifeboat managed to safely tow the vessel across to West Shore at the site of the now-closed Grain Power Station.

This cleared the channel for the car carrier to leave the estuary.

The yacht was then towed to Queenborough Harbour where it arrived at 8.10pm.

The ALB was back on station and ready for service again at 8.30pm.