IT WAS an eventful opening day of Cowes Week for the town's lifeboat who went to the aid of a boat which crashed into a yacht.

The three crew of a Seaview Mermaid urgently called the coastguard for assistance at 5.20pm today (Saturday, July 27), which sent out Cowes RNLI, following the report of a collision with a yacht just outside the breakwater.

Although Cowes RNLI lifeboat was launched, it was a Cowes Harbour launch which was first on the scene to provide initial assistance.

The boat and crew were safely brought ashore.

Later, the lifeboat station provided a welcome cup of tea to a 67-year-old crewman of an X One Design, suffering from the cold.

His craft had been towed into Cowes Harbour by another lifeboat.