A Sea King helicopter from RNAS Culdrose airlifted the crew

Five crew members from the Inis Mill were rescued on Wednesday three miles off Trevose Head in Cornwall.

They abandoned their boat after it started sinking on 7 September, a day after leaving Kenmare in Ireland for Cherbourg in France.

David Faulkner and his crew were airlifted after they came close enough to land to make a mobile phone call.

The crew were rescued off Trevose Head

After the 60ft boat started sinking the crew made mayday calls and lit rubber tyres on the deck as a way of creating a smoke signal but by 1700 BST they abandoned the vessel and got in a life-raft.

They then set fire to the vessel in order to create an attraction.

Martin Bidmead, watch manager at Falmouth coastguards, said: "The skipper was brilliant but unfortunately nobody saw.

"They were two-thirds of the way to the Isles of Scilly so they were in very deep water so perhaps that is no surprise.

"The captain did an unbelievable job in doing all he could."

However, the coastguard added that if they had had working mobile VHF radios the alarm could have been raised earlier.

The five crew members survived in a 6ft by 4ft raft

Mr Bidmead said: "A 60ft vessel doing that sort of crossing would normally be expected to carry a number of means of communication to raise the alarm if something happened.

"Among those would be a satellite beacon which would automatically send a distress signal to us if the vessel sank.

"We know they didn't have a beacon."

With the stricken crew's battery and signal failing, rescuers were forced to limit telephone calls to them.

They would have had to work very hard together to get through the ordeal Lieutenant Roger Brook from 771 Squadron, RNAS Culdrose

A helicopter found the life-raft within minutes of being scrambled, and winched them to safety.

Lieutenant Roger Brook from 771 Squadron, RNAS Culdrose, was the winchman who helped rescue the five and described their condition.

He said: "They were quite euphoric, but also wet and hungry.

"They would have had to work very hard together to get through the ordeal.

"In survival training we spend an hour in a 10-man raft and that is enough, so for five people for that length of time is quite amazing.

"It is very uncomfortable, like five people on a bed together rolling around and being covered in water.

"It is sheer willpower whether you can survive or not."