Four sailors who abandoned ship when it caught fire were rescued off the Italian coast yesterday after sending a Mayday to British coastguards. Skipper David Fuller and his and crew, from Hitchin, Hertfordshire delivering Swan 44Kratosto Italy after a three-month refit. They were 20 miles off the coast, in the North Adriatic, when a short circuit in a fan caused a boat fire.

They abandoned to liferaft and sent a mayday to Solent Coastguard, who put the call through to Falmouth Coastguard, Cornwall, which coordinates international calls. They in turn alerted the Italian Coastguard, who sent out a rescue boat to collect the men from their slowly sinking life raft. The entire rescue took an hour-and-a-half.

All four crew members were taken to hospital in Rimini, with one man suffering minor burns and smoke inhalation. The others were uninjured.