Three fishermen stranded in the open water for eight hours

Three fishermen huddled together before being rescued near the Firth of Thames. Photo / Alan Gibson

Three fishermen huddled together in the water for eight hours last night after their boat overturned near the Firth of Thames.

At midnight, the wife of one of the men raised the alarm after her husband failed to return from a fishing trip.

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter located an upturned vessel matching the description of the fishermen's tinny boat with three people clinging to the hull.

The helicopter was unable to winch the men from the sea, and a Coastguard rescue vessel was launched at Kopu to get to the men's location.

All three were retrieved from the water about 2am. Coastguard said two of the three men had lifejackets on, and were clinging together to keep warm.

Coastguard volunteers provided them with blankets to get warm and then took them to at awaiting ambulance at the Kopu boat ramp, where they were taken to Thames Hospital for observation before being released mid-morning today.

Coastguard estimated the trio had been in the water for up to eight hours, and all were starting suffer the onset of hypothermia when retrieved from the water.

The capsize was believed to have happened after a a rope from the vessel got caught around the propeller while the group were on the way back to shore.

While the men worked to free the rope from the propeller, the vessel turned side-on to the waves and capsized.

Alan Benson, volunteer skipper of Thames Rescue said: "Credit to them for keeping together with the safety line they made out of the rope around the propeller playing a big part in that and quite possibly saving their lives. They were very fortunate we got to them when we did as hypothermia was starting to kick in."

All three remained incredible grateful for the search and rescue, and to the Coastguard volunteers for their efforts.