A MOTORBOAT owner was "given words of advice" after they sent out a distress call by mistake before breaking down and having to be rescued by Falmouth lifeboat.

The inshore lifeboat with a crew of Jamie Connolly (helmsman), Jonathan Hackwell, Adam West and Tamara Brookes were called out at around 1.40pm to the broken down motorboat close to shore off Gull Rock in Veryan Bay.

The 6m motor boat with four people on board had suffered engine failure.The vessel had contacted the coastguard using a mobile phone and the Coastguard issued a Pan Broadcast requesting assistance from other vessels in the area. One yacht responded and proceeded to standby the vessel until the inshore lifeboat arrived on scene.

The Inshore Lifeboat launched from her slipway at 1:44pm and having rounded Zone Point headed up to the east arriving on scene at 2:03pm. The vessel was located close to Nare Head and a line was passed to the vessel and it was towed back to Falmouth.

Once in Falmouth Inner Harbour the boat was taken to Port Pendennis Marina where it was safely secured at 15:32, the Inshore Lifeboat being released to return to its station.

A spokesperson for the lifeboat station said: "The vessel was towed to the nearest safe haven where the owner could arrange for repairs to be carried out. Suitable safety advice was also given, especially as the same vessel had been involved in an earlier incident where its radio had accidentally issued a DSC [distress] alert."