An afternoon out at sea almost ended in catastrophe as a speed boat began rapidly taking on water off the Kent coast.

Ellis Taylor was piloting the 17-foot vessel near Thanet, with his sister, brother and his brother’s girlfriend when disaster struck last Saturday afternoon.

“We were just on our way back to the shore when my sister said the boat was filling with water,” said Mr Taylor, 29.

“I turned around and saw that the water was up to both girls’ ankles.

“We tried to identify what was happening, but it was all happening so quickly and before I knew it the rear had gone completely submerged.”

The Ramsgate resident instructed his sister and his brother’s girlfriend to get into an inflatable donut, while his brother donned a lifejacket and began treading water.

Luckily, the group still had their mobile phone available and were able to call the coastguard for help.

As the boat sank, Mr Taylor was perched atop the last part of it above sea level when an RNLI boat came to the rescue.

“There was a brief moment of stress when the boat was going down, but there was relief in knowing that we were not too far out and the RNLI were able to come out and rescue us.

“They were there within minutes, rescued is quickly and even managed to get the boat back to shore too.”

“If it hadn’t been for the RNLI, the day could have got a whole lot different.”

Mechanics later told Mr Taylor that a grommet connected to the engine’s fuel lines had come loose, exposing a hole through which seawater was able to seep onto the deck.

Nobody was injured in the accident, and because the speedboat was recovered so quickly it has since been possible to repair it to working order.

Nonetheless, Mr Taylor says he plans to stay clear of the ocean for the foreseeable future.

“We are all so grateful for the help of the RNLI - they were fantastic,” he said.

“We’ve got the boat running again, I think we’ll be sticking to the river from now on.”

Coxswain of Ramsgate RNLI Ian Cannon said: “In this case the people on the speedboat had taken the sensible precaution of having a mobile phone onboard so had been able to call the emergency services themselves, alerting the Coastguard.

“Whenever you set to sea always ensure that your boat is in good condition and you have a means of calling for assistance if required.”