A family had a lucky escape after a fire broke out on their rebuilt yacht ahead of a dream summer on the water.

Louise Stevens and her husband, Jon, a boatbuilder and refitter, and their young daughter had only moved onto the MY Juliette two days before, as they got ready to cruise the west coast before mooring up in London for the winter.

The couple, who originally come from Weymouth and were travelling with Jon’s father and their pet dogs, described the incident as “our worst nightmare”.

Mr Stevens donned diving equipment in an effort to put out the fire.

Lifeboats from Poole and Swanage were called to the scene following a mayday call to coastguards at 5.50pm on Saturday and the family were taken to shore by the crews.

The boat was near to Poole when the fire broke out.

“Upon smelling burning plastic on the flybridge, Jon went and quickly found two fires in the corner of the engine room,” said Mrs Stevens.

The engine room filled with smoke and while Mrs Stevens made a mayday call, Mr Stevens improvised breathing apparatus from some on-board diving gear and started to extinguish the blaze.

However, he said: “It kept re-igniting. Luckily, because of my work, I had installed a lot of fire extinguishers on board but we used nearly all of them.”

At one point the flames disappeared for five minutes before appearing again.

He eventually put out the fire and the RNLI took the family to shore.

Mr Stevens said: “Everyone is fine. Louise is still in hospital but she is recovering. It could have been a lot worse.”

He praised the RNLI and coastguard for their prompt arrival.

“They were on scene within 13 minutes - it was incredible,” said Mr Stevens.

The couple bought MY Juliette as a “total wreck” in a government auction more than two years ago.

“We think she belonged to someone who had all his assets removed and she was sold to pay her marine bills,” he said.

He used all his knowledge of boatbuilding to restore her and the process sparked such interest that the yacht has her own Facebook page.

Mr Stevens said he and his wife would stay in Poole while he repaired the yacht.

“It looks like a pipe came loose from the port engine,” he said.

“It fell onto the live terminal of the starter motor. That sent 24v through the water pipes. This caused the water pump wiring to set fire.”