A group of Herefordshire farmers have vowed to help the RNLI after they were rescued from a sinking boat in the middle of the night by Tenby lifeboat .

Nick Bevan, Paul Hawkins and Richard Price have thanked the lifeboat crew for coming to their rescue off the Welsh coast.

The trio, along with two friends, sailed from Swansea last Friday for a weekend of shark fishing on the Lady Jue.

But their journey turned into disaster around 11pm when the vessel started taking on water six miles from Pembrokeshire.

A crew from Tenby lifeboat station rescued the men - found sitting on the upturned bow - just five minutes before it sunk.

Paul Hawkins said there was “no doubt” the group would do something to repay the courageous volunteers.

“When you’re stranded in the middle of the ocean you’ve got to be grateful for these people,” said the 35-year-old.

“They give their time, take these risks and do an absolutely fantastic job. You can’t be anything more than grateful.”

The trip was organised by Lady Jue owner, Rob Rennie, who runs a construction firm near Monmouth.

The three-month old boat left harbour at 7.30pm but got into difficulty in moderate seas off Worm’s Head on the Gower.

Mr Rennie was forced to turn-off one engine when alarms started sounding, another failed as the boat took on water.

Nick Bevan said his friends remained calm and were relieved to hear the lifeboat was coming.

“We were sitting on the front of the boat nearly in darkness and wondering what was going to happen,” said the 39-year-old.

“If it had been much longer and we would have been in the water.

“It was nice to see the lifeboat but we knew they were coming. They were very good and got there just at the right time.”