TWO boat crews had to be rescued by Weymouth Lifeboat after getting into difficulty near Portland.

RNLI lifeboat crews responded to a mayday distress call from a boat taking on water near Portland Harbour - rescuing two people from a motorboat shortly afterwards.

The incidents happened yesterday, with the first call coming in just before 10.30am.

The Weymouth lifeboat sped across the water to the vessel, which was near to the north entrance to Portland Harbour.

Fortunately the skipper of a nearby boat also happened to be a RNLI Weymouth lifeboat crewmember and was able to climb aboard and stop the water coming in from one of the boat's twin engines.

"With the water no longer coming in, the other engine was started and used to get the bilge pump to work and empty out the water," said a Weymouth Lifeboat spokesman.

"On arrival of the lifeboat it was decided that everything seemed to be under control and that the lifeboat would just escort the vessel to its berth in Portland Marina."

The lifeboat returned to the station at 11.54am and made ready for the next shout.

"That came sooner than expected," the spokesman added.

At 3.05pm crews were called out to help Salcombe lifeboat, which had rescued two people on board a 38' motorboat struck by engine failure around five miles west of Portland Bill.

It had been travelling from the Solent to Dartmouth when the failure happened.

Weymouth Lifeboat's spokesman said: "Salcolmbe lifeboat started towing the vessel towards Weymouth and requested that we take over so that Salcombe lifeboat could continue its passage to Poole."

The two lifeboats exchanged towing duties around one mile north west of Portland Bill, after which Salcombe carried on to Poole and Weymouth lifeboat brought the motorboat back to Weymouth Harbour.

Crews arrived back at around 6pm and prepared for the next shout.