An RNLI coxswain has been presented with an award for ‘outstanding seamanship and teamwork’, after rescuing a couple from their yacht.

Gary Fairbairn, coxswain at Dunbar, East Lothian, had previously received the RNLI‘s bronze medal for gallantry.

But now he has scooped another award from the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society‘s Skill and Gallantry Awards.

Mr Fairbairn received the Lady Swaythling Trophy in London from the former most senior officer in the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band.

The award came as a result of a rescue in the Firth of Forth on May 15 last year of a yacht that had suffered two knockdowns in extreme weather conditions.

After locating the yacht, Ouhm, Mr Fairbairn, after several attempts, managed to come alongside it without causing a collision.

The couple were dragged to safety, but the yacht had to be abandoned as the conditions were too dangerous to tow it back to shore.

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