A LIFEBOAT crew were called to a serious fire on board a motorboat - which has featured in a James Bond film - in the Solent.

The RNLI’s Yarmouth lifeboat Eric and Susan Hiscock (Wanderer) was called out on Friday to go to the aid of a classic motor launch with an engine fire off Lymington.

The lifeboat launched from Yarmouth harbour at 3.20pm following a mayday call to the Solent Coastguard from those on board a Fairey Huntsman 28’ motorboat named Here and Now, located to the east of the mouth of Lymington River.

The Southampton-based boat featured in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia With Love.

The volunteer lifeboat crew quickly reached the stricken vessel, which was already under tow by the Lymington lifeboat with those on board having been safely transferred to another vessel.

Escorted by the Yarmouth lifeboat, the damaged motorboat was towed back into Lymington by the Lymington lifeboat and checked over by the Hampshire Fire and Rescue, before being strapped alongside the Yarmouth lifeboat so that her salvage pump could be used to pump out all the residual water.

The motorboat was then immediately lifted out of the water by Lymington Yacht Haven to prevent her from sinking as a result of the damage sustained in the fire.

Paul Fairall, owner of Southampton-based Here and Now for the last thirty years, told the Yarmouth RNLI that the boat had an illustrious past, having featured in a boat chase in the Bond film 'From Russia with Love' in 1963 and having won a prize in the 1962 Cowes Torquay Powerboat Race.