At 05:00 on New Years Eve, in storm-tossed seas, a four-week-old £300,000 yacht ran aground and capsized on Hook Sands two miles off Reculver, Kent.

The two men on board had collected the yacht Justice from Ramsgate and were en route to St Katherine’s Dock in London, where they both live.

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, and were soon released after a check-up. The shocked pair returned to Herne Bay later to watch as the yacht wreckage was washed up on the beach in front of the Kings Hall.

Margate lifeboat answered the Mayday distress call, attached a tow line to the 45ft yacht and pulled it off the sandbank. Unfortunately water poured into the yacht, causing it to sink.