Falmouth lifeboat crews have spoken today of the fire which totally destroyed a luxury cabin cruiser at the weekend although its owners escaped injury.

It was about 1.30am on Saturday morning the crews of both the inshore and offshore lifeboats in Falmouth were alerted.

Falmouth Coastguard had tasked crews to go to the aid of the 37 ft Sealine Motor Cruiser reported to be on fire at Turnaware Point in the River Fal.

In a matter of minutes the volunteer lifeboat crews were on their way to the incident arriving on scene less than 15 minutes later, said Dave Nichol who helmed the inshore boat.

It was the first to arrive, and he said he and his colleagues were faced by a raging inferno on the motor cruiser.

The first priority was to confirm the safety of anyone involved in the incident.. said Dave.

The cruiser was manned by a husband and wife Clive Singleton aged 49 and his wife Lynne, 39.

The couple had evacuated to a nearby yacht and having established they were safe and well, and no other people were involved, the inshore lifeboat stood off at a safe distance to await the arrival of the all weather lifeboat.

The vessel met the yacht as it approached the scene and transferred a first aid trained lifeboatman with oxygen, to check out the casualties.

Meanwhile, the inshore lifeboat picked up members of the retained St Mawes Fire Brigade from Turnaware Point and transferred them to the all weather lifeboat to help assess the extent of the fire and to consider how best to contain it. Some minutes later the brigade’s rigid inflatable, Transco Pheonix arrived, with more fire fighters and extra equipment to help tackle the blaze, said Dave.

With the firefighters tackling the blaze from the pontoon both lifeboats stood by until the situation had been contained. By 3.20am the cruiser had been towed by the Truro Harbourmaster’s launch to Turnaware Bar and beached, allowing the fire brigade better access and to prevent it from sinking.

“Despite the loss of the vessel both casualties had managed to scramble to safety and thankfully were not harmed – all the emergency services had worked closely together during the incident,” said Dave.

The all weather lifeboat crew comprised: Mark Pollard (coxswain); Dave Proud; Snowy Angove; Alan Rowe; Alistair Heane; Carl Beardmore; Tom Napper. The inshore lifeboat crew were; Dave Nicoll (Helmsman); Oliver Lewis; Luke Wills.

See earlier reports by clicking the related link