THE crew of a fishing trawler have had to be rescued after the vessel lost power near Bridlington harbour.
Serene's propeller failed as it was returning to the harbour from Hornsea and beached off South Pier at about 9.30am yesterday.
Strong waves then overwhelmed the vessel, causing it to take on water and eventually capsize.
The ship's skipper, Clint Bycroft, said the recent bad weather had made fishing conditions extremely difficult and trawler crews were becoming desperate.
"This was only the third day fishing we had done in the past six weeks and we are trying to make a living," he said.
"It's our livelihood so we couldn't sit back and do nothing and decided to try our luck.
"The weather wasn't that bad, so that makes it even more frustrating."
Three of the ship's four-man crew were rescued while Mr Bycroft remained on board with a member of the Humber Coastguard to try to bail out the water and salvage the trawler.
Mr Bycroft, 36, of Bridlington, thinks the ship's netting slipped from the deck and got caught in the propeller.
"I am 90 per cent sure that our own nets snagged on the propeller and cut the engine," he said.
"We knew there was a shallow sand beach close by and we thought we had steered around it but the bad weather must have pushed it to another position.
"We beached on that and got hit by a couple of waves, which crashed over the boat and flooded us.
"I think we must have cracked the hull because there was more water coming in than we could bail out."
Attempts to tow the stricken trawler into the harbour were abandoned as the volume of water onboard was too great.
Andy Brompton, a spokesman for Bridlington RNLI, said: "Serene came into difficulty off South Pier at Bridlington when its propeller failed.
"Humber Coastguard were called out but, unfortunately, she couldn't be saved. Thankfully, no one was injured."
Mr Bycroft had taken ownership of the vessel just a year ago but has vowed to continue fishing.
He said: "It's life. I took a chance and it didn't come off, there's not much more I can do.
"Hopefully, we can try to recover some equipment but we will just have to move on and deal with it."
The ship's crew raced to salvage what they could from the ship as it began to sink in the North Sea.
The vessel remained nearly fully submerged in the water overnight with just its mast a cabin visible.
Gary Redshaw, a fisherman based in Bridlington Harbour, said the loss of any trawler was "devastating".
"We are all absolutely gutted about it," he said.
"It has been a very difficult time for fisherman because of the harsh winter so to have this on top is devastating.
"It is extremely sad. That is the skipper's life. It is what he lives for, it is everything to him.
"He was just about in tears and it is understandable but we will try to salvage what we can for him."
