A Dorset yacht skipper who phoned UK coastguards for help when his vessel caught fire off the Italian coast has spoken of his ordeal.

David Fuller, 44, had just bought the 30ft boat Kratos in Italy when fire broke out 13 miles off the coast of Rimini in the Adriatic.

Mr Fuller and his crew, Jim Prendergrast, 35, from London, Rob Cunningham, 45, from Shrewsbury, and Matt Sillars, 22, from St Albans, tried to put out the blaze but were soon forced to abandon ship.

They took to the liferaft, which starting to take on water.

The men called Solent Coastguard near Southampton 1,000 miles away when they were in the liferaft because it was the only number they had in their satellite phone.

Staff patched them through to Falmouth coastguard, which alerted Italian rescue services and the men were picked up.

Mr Prendergrast suffered a minor burn to his hand fighting the fire and the other three were uninjured. A trawler rescued the men and towed the burnt yacht into Rimini.

Speaking from Rimini, Mr Fuller said: "We were on our way to Gibral-tar and ultimately back to England as I had just bought the yacht in Ravenna.

"We had been at sea for a few hours and I was asleep below deck when one of the watch shouted out "fire" and it all started from there.

"We tried to fight it but quickly the whole place was filled with flames and smoke. Jim suffered a burnt hand and smoke inhalation.

"There was lots of fuel and gas onboard so we decided the best thing to do was abandon the yacht. We launched the liferaft and took a bag with money, passports and the phone.

"The only number we had on it was for the Solent coastguard so we called them and they passed us to Falmouth, who called Rome and then Rimini.

"We had to co-ordinate the rescue by telephone as they couldn't find us at first and we had to fire a flare when they were in the area.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking as she was full of petrol and could have gone up at any moment because of the fire.''