A lifeboat mechanic found himself on the wrong end of the tow-rope when he was left stranded in a broken-down fishing boat.

Mark Blatcher had to ask some of his Coastguard colleagues for help after his boat, Onyx, hit trouble near Brighton Marina on Saturday.

The mechanic had been enjoying a day out with friends Clive Martin and Will Camp when their boat failed to restart.

Despite frantic efforts to fix the engine, Mark had to give up and sheepishly call his crewmates on Shoreham inshore lifeboat.

Mark said: "We managed to carry on fishing till around 2pm, but we had no chance of restarting the engine.

"There has been lots of mickey-taking but it would have been even worse if it was my own boat."