The crew of a Falmouth based fishing scalloper was forced to send out a Mayday call in the early hours of this morning after running aground off the east Devon coast.

The Debbie V owned by Chris Vinnicombe from Mylor Bridge ran aground at Budleigh Salterton in the early hours of this morning (Thursday, January 11).

The Exmouth and Beer Coastguard Rescue Teams were sent out, with support from the search and rescue helicopter from St Athan and Exmouth RNLI's all-weather and inshore lifeboats at 5.20am this morning.

When the tide fell the three people on board the boat were able to walk ashore safely. They reached dry land at about 7.50am, where they were met by Exmouth Coastguard Rescue Team.

The Debbie V, named after Mr Vinnicombe's wife, was launched in 2018 after being built locally for his company the Amethyst Fishing Company based at Mylor Quay near Falmouth.

The boat is mostly crewed by members of Mr Vinnicombe’s family.

The boat was designed by Cornish naval architect Denis Swire from Porthleven, and has an overall length of 11.99m, a substantial beam of 5.9m, and a draught of 3.4m.

Mr Vinnicombe told the Packet he didn’t want to make any comment at this time.

These pictures were taken by Sean C Kelly, who walked about half a mile down the beach to photograph the stricken vessel.

It is not known if any damage was caused to the vessel during the incident.