Boat pair tell of East Devon rescue
Two men were injured when the boat overturned during a race.
The moments following the incident were captured by Echo reader Richard Bishop, who was a passenger on a boat which went to the aid of the stricken vessel.
Richard Jacobs skippered the craft, the Trinitas, the official starting launch for Exmouth's New Year's Day powerboat race, which was involved in the rescue.
"It was about halfway through the race, so about seven or eight minutes in," he said.
"We had a report saying that one boat had overturned. I went to their aid. By then both crew members and the boat had been recovered. They were quite badly injured and I know one was still in hospital on Saturday. The boat collided quite badly. I took one on my boat as he was pretty badly shaken up.
"I've been doing this for quite a few years. I've seen boats turn over but never anyone injured."
The man more immediately on the scene was James White, 23, who was operating the race safety craft.
He said the two men had been left bruised due to the speed they had been thrown into the water.
He said: "I pulled them out of the water. They were transferred from the safety boat to another boat, taken to shore then taken to hospital by ambulance. They were battered and bruised with black eyes.
"One of the men struggled to get out of the boat. He was under the water for a couple of minutes."
The accident happened at Pole Sands at 12.15pm on New Year's Day.
Exmouth RNLI's inshore lifeboat was called out along with Exmouth coastguard and an ambulance crew.
The two men, both in their 30s and from the Exeter area, were taken to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital where they were treated for facial injuries and hypothermia. Their injuries were not described as life threatening.
A spokeswoman for Brixham Coastguard said: "We were called by the ambulance control because they didn't know if the people were out of the water. We sent the inshore lifeboat and the search and rescue team and they got them ashore."
Richard Jacobs at the helm of the Trinitas, which went to the aid of a powerboat that had overturned during a race RICHARD BISHOP
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