TWO sailors were plucked to safety from their sinking yacht as it pounded against the Cobb harbour wall in Lyme Regis in the early hours of Wednesday morn ing. Around 50 bottles of red wine thought to be on board and other personal posses sions were lost to the sea as the pair were lifted to dry land in a dramatic rescue opera tion. The owner of the 26-foot sail ing cruiser Scoobydoo, who was with a friend on his way back from France, put out a may-day call after the rudder was broken and gusting winds and heavy seas were pushing the yacht towards the Cobb. The Lyme Regis lifeboat crew was called out but deputy launching authority Michael Dixon decided that because of the sea conditions, it would be safer to lift the men from the harbour wall. Coastguards and lifeboat crew threw a line out to the yacht and secured it before hauling the men one-by-one up the face of the harbour wall. Mr Dixon said: "We are delighted everything worked well and both men were pulled to safety. The co-opera tion between lifeboat crew ashore and the coastguards was really excellent." The two men were given blankets and checked out by members of the fire and res cue service's co-responders team before being taken to the lifeboat station for show ers and hot drinks. By Wednesday afternoon the boat had disintegrated almost entirely, after taking a pound ing from the large swell and breaking seas coming in from the south west. Fire and rescue's sub officer in charge Virgil Turner said special rope crews from Weymouth and Poole had been on their way to help in the operation but turned back when it became clear the res cue was under control. He said he and his crew had been out on Wednesday morn ing, trying to retrieve some of the yachtsmen's belongings, and had so far managed to find a laptop computer and a wash bag.