A man has had to be winched from a fishing trawler after losing his finger in an incident 25 miles out at sea, south west of St Ann’s Head.

The call was made to Angle Lifeboat just before 1pm on Thursday that a crew member had lost his finger on board a 38-metre beam trawler.

The St Athans Coastguard Rescue helicopter was also tasked to assist with the fisherman's recovery.

“We reached the fishing vessel within around an hour of the call and transferred two of our crew members, who are casualty care-trained, on board to assess the situation,” said a spokesperson for Angle lifeboat.

The casualty was transferred onto the lifeboat but following the helicopter’s arrival, it was decided to lower the winchman down to the lifeboat to assess and further treat the casualty. 

“Once the the paramedic winchman was on deck, it was decided to winch the casualty into the helicopter so that he could be flown to hospital for further care,” added the crew member.

The following day, at 4.48pm, the all-weather lifeboat was paged once again, together with the Tenby all-weather lifeboat, following a PanPan call from a yacht that was positioned south of St Govan’s Head.

The vessel, which had one person onboard, had suffered rigging failure and was struggling to make headway. The skipper was also severely fatigued and unwell.

“We made best speed and arrived on scene around 35 minutes later," the crew member said.

"Once we’d assessed the casualty and the vessel, a tow was passed by the crew and the lifeboat began its slow tow towards Milford Haven Marina where the yacht arrived around three hours later.”