A Falmouth kayak instructor with 18 years experience was one of nine kayakers rescued by the RNLI after getting into difficulties while on a post-Christmas "jolly."

Jeff Allen, joint owner of Sea Kayaking Cornwall based at Challenger Marine, was one of a group of experienced kayakers who set off from Sennen Cove for a trip around Land's End during weather conditions described as "challenging", with near-gale force winds and squally showers.

Tracy Hawke-Treneer was on duty at Falmouth Coastguard Station when the group phoned at around 10am to say they were heading out. Just an hour later a member of the group put in another call, this time a mayday via VHF radio, to say they needed help after one of the kayaks sunk and a number of the group ended up in the water.

Mrs Hawke-Treneer said: "There was a group of eight kayaks with nine paddlers, as one of the kayaks was a double. As they went around the peninsula some of the group were a little overwhelmed by the sea and the wind and some of them started to capsize."

Lifeboats from Sennen and Penlee were sent to help the group, as well as a rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose, which airlifted one woman to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro after she showed signs of suffering from mild-hypothermia. Mrs Hawke-Treneer said this was due to the fact that she was not wearing a wetsuit.

She added: "They did everything correctly by calling us up on the landline to let us know they were going. It wasn't the whole group that became overwhelmed, just three or four of them, and its difficult to rescue someone in a kayak. It just got slightly out of hand and weather conditions didn't assist."

Mr Allen said that one of the kayaks had sunk due to a collision between two of the group, which led to one woman ending up the water.

"That gave us two options: one was that we left her, which wasn't an option at all, or we stayed with her and call for assistance, which is what we're trained to do. The situation is that if that kayak hadn't sunk we would have been able to contain the situation ourselves. Collisions happen," he said.

He described the weather conditions as "exciting" rather than bad, adding that trips had been made in much rougher conditions for training purposes - although on this occasion, the trip was a "Christmas jolly" rather than a training mission.

"It's the kind of weather that we normally train and play in. All of the kayaks were of a proficient standard and able to cope with the conditions. It wasn't an error in judgement," he said.

Mr Allen, who in 2004 circumnavigated four Japanese islands and in 2005 was part of the first British team to circumnavigate the remote Antarctic Island of South Georgia - both trips taking place in a kayak - was joined at Sennen by JP Eatock, a kayak trainer who also works at Falmouth Marine School.

Mr Allen said: "We certainly weren't inexperienced or naive about what the conditions were going to be. I really commend the paddlers that were with me for holding it together and sticking to their training. It was a really good performance by all the people out there."