Sandbanks chain ferry hit by two boats

Description:

Both a racing dinghy and an ice-cream boat collided with the chain link ferry within minutes of each other towards the end of Saturday afternoon.

Two men were rescued after the dinghy struck the ferry on Saturday evening. The Poole RNLI Inshore Lifeboat was called out to the incident at about 5.12pm. The pair were taken off the dinghy and transferred to the lifeboat then taken back to Parkstone Marina in Poole Harbour.

No more than 10 minutes later a boat selling ice-cream suffered a power failure and drifted against the side of the ferry. Again Poole RNLI Inshore Lifeboat was called to the scene and towed the boat to safety.

Poole Inshore Lifeboat senior helmsman Paul Singleton said they had been kept "very busy" on Saturday afternoon. He continued: "They were racing out in the bay, then came back in and got trapped against the ferry and couldn't do anything. One person climbed up the side of the ferry and one ended up in the water because the boat was sinking. The mast on the racing dinghy was damaged . One of the blokes was a bit shaken up. Ten minutes after that the ice-cream vessel had a power failure and drifted against the prow of the ferry."