Boy, 10, praised for capsize rescue

Stuart Crang, whose father is a member of an RNLI lifeboat crew, spotted the pair in the water next to their sailing boat which had filled with water.

The brave youngster rowed out to them to see if they needed help before towing them for 30 minutes back to safety.

Canoe instructor Richard Brown and his partner, Sue Taffler, who were both wearing life jackets, had been in the water for about 45 minutes after getting into difficulty when sailing off Brixham in Devon.

Stuart said he had been out fishing when the drama unfolded last month.

“I was out in my little rowing boat, it’s only 8ft, and there were two people called Richard and Sue and they had capsized and had started to sink,” he said. “I just went out to see if they were all right, but they said no, so I put them on a tow and brought them into the harbour.”

Luckily Stuart had a rope about 4ft long which he tied to the front of the sailing boat, while Mr Brown and Ms Taffler held on to it, not wanting to get into Stuart’s boat in case that also capsized.

“It took me half an hour to bring them in, it was just me rowing, I was struggling quite a bit, but my dad was coming out and he saw me,” he said. “They were far too cold and of course they had weren’t feeling great when they got out.”

Stuart’s father, Nigel, 47, crews the RNLI’s Torbay lifeboat, while his brother, Jonathan, 23 is in the local coastguard team.