The Wells lifeboat crew went to the late-night rescue of a 24ft yacht that had lost her anchor and gone aground while trying to enter harbour, it emerged today.

The yacht La Condorita, with two people on board, was nearing the end of a passage from Cleethorpes, on the Lincolnshire coast, to Wells when trouble struck.

An RNLI spokesman said: 'She was attempting to enter Wells harbour and needed assistance finding the channel. There were no other vessels in the area so she decided to drop anchor and hold off until daylight. Unfortunately, she lost her anchor during an unsuccessful attempt to set it.'

The inshore lifeboat, Jane Ann III, was launched and went alongside the yacht, which had run aground on the west side of the channel. The RNLI team put a crewman on board and attached a towrope to try to pull the vessel into deeper water, but one of La Condorita's main winches broke away during the attempt.

The lifeboat 'shout' began at about 11,15pm on Friday, The yacht was made secure and the lifeboat returned to Wells boathouse shortly after midnight, relaunching on the Saturday morning tide to help refloat La Condorita and escort her into port.

The crew of a windfarm service vessel, the MV Zephyr, helped with the rescue operation.