Falmouth Coastguard has rescued three crew from a French yacht in the Atlantic.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said an emergency alert was received from the crew of Idem, a Beneteau 38, at about 0730 yesterday.

Sailing from Iceland to Brittany, the yacht had been blown 500 miles off course in Force 7 winds and its engine had failed.

Falmouth notified a nearby container ship which picked up the crew and the yacht was abandoned.

Watch officer Henry Purbrick said the yachtsmen’s lives were saved by their EPIRB.

He said: ‘We cannot stress how important it is to carry a registered EPIRB. It certainly saved the lives of these three yachtsmen.

‘As a result of the broadcasts to shipping we had three ships offer assistance, the container vessel Wilhemshaven arrived on scene at 10:43am and in harsh weather conditions the captain manoeuvred the vessel with great skill to evacuate the yachtsmen from their yacht.’

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