Plan B Forum

A 10-year-old boy rowed half a mile out to sea to rescue a couple who got stranded at sea whose boat had taken on too much water.

Stuart Crang then used all his might in his eight-foot dinghy to row them back to harbour in Brixham, Devon, a trip which took half an hour.



He was the only person to notice the husband and wife were in trouble off Fishcombe Cove, despite the shoreline being busy with people enjoying the sunshine.

His father Nigel, a helmsman for the RNLI in Torbay, said that the only concern Stuart had was that he would be in trouble for going further out to sea than he was supposed to go.

Mr Crang said: 'He's only allowed to go down as far as Fishcombe Cove.

'This is the first year he has been allowed to go that far but he spotted the sailing dinghy in trouble about half a mile off Fishcombe.

'He rowed out to see what was going on as it kept turning over.

'When he got there he found a husband and wife in the water as their Pico dinghy had filled with water and they were unable to get back on to it.

'They had been in the water for about 45 minutes.

'The couple didn't have a phone with them and neither did Stuart so he put them on a tow line and rowed some 30 minutes back to shore to safety.'

The husband and wife have since bought Stuart boxes of sweets and rained him with thanks since they were helped back to dry land.

Mr Crang added: 'The cove was full of boats and people enjoying the weather but no one had seen them in trouble. The coastguard had no report of this until we called them to see how many reports they'd had.

'Someone should have spotted them. It was just like the old safety advertisement where the bloke sees someone in distress, nudges his wife and says "Look Petunia, he's waving!".

'Stuart loves his boat, and he'll row here, there and everywhere. I can't get him out of the water. I think he thought he was going to be in trouble, but we are very, very proud of him.'