Lifeboat crews had to be called out to the same vessel twice in one night as it did not have the correct safety equipment.

The Sheerness crew were first called by UK Coastguard to respond to a boat stuck off the Isle of Grain on Sunday (September 8) at around 7.40pm.

Though the stuck ship’s location was unclear, they eventually found it at 8.08pm along with one man on board hard aground to the South of the East Blyth buoy.

With the state of the tide, the closest the lifeboat could get was around a mile away from the casualty, and with the man in no imminent danger, the lifeboat was stood down and was back on her moorings at 9.10pm.

However, they were called again by UK Coastguard at 1.14am this morning (September 9) to the same craft which had reportedly re-floated on the tide and its engine had now failed.

Launching with a crew of six at 1.40am the lifeboat returned to the original location but it had moved, eventually being found further East at the London Stone which is at the entrance to Yantlet Creek.

With barely a meter of water beneath the keel, the lifeboat made a slow approach to the vessel across the Yantlet Flats and came alongside at 2.30am.

Two crew members were put on board, the vessels anchor was lifted and with a towline attached.

The casualty was taken to deeper water and then to Queenborough Harbour where it was safely moored on the all-tide landing at 4.12am.

It was discovered the man had been sailing his ship without certain pieces of navigational and safety equipment.

The lifeboat returned to station and was ready for further service at 5.00am.

Sheerness RNLI Lifeboat coxswain, Paul Jarvis, said: “The man had just purchased the craft, an approximately 10mtr 1970’s Broom cruiser type, and had motored without problem from Reading and was heading for Stoke Creek when he got into difficulties.

“There was no VHF, navigational aids or indeed any kind of safety equipment onboard, the man was relying solely on his mobile phone which fortunately did not run out of charge.”