Two saved in Herne Bay yacht drama

TWO sailors had a miraculous escape when their brand new £300,000 yacht hit a sandbank and sank off Herne Bay.

The drama happened in the dark in storm-tossed seas at 5am this morning.

The four-week-old yacht ran aground and capsized on Hook Sands two miles off Reculver.

A helicopter crew was scrambled from Belgium and winched the men, both IT experts, to safety.

They were airlifted to Margate's Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital but were released after a check-up.

The shocked pair returned to Herne Bay to watch as the wreckage of the yacht was washed up on the beach in front of the Kings Hall.

The men had collected the yacht, called Justice, from Ramsgate and had been sailing to Katherine's Dock, London, where they live.

Margate lifeboat answered the Mayday distress call, attached a tow line to the 45ft yacht and pulled it off the sandbank. But water gushed in and the yacht sank.