A GROUP of “worse for wear” men who had to be rescued after getting stuck in mud late at night have been described by the RNLI as “extremely lucky”.

Poole Inshore Lifeboat was launched at the request of Portland Coastguard at 12.30am on Saturday after reports that the group was stuck in Wareham Channel.

Crews found the four men on board a Sea-Doo, a mini-jet boat vessel, that had come out of the Wareham River and ploughed into the mud bank as the group travelled from Wareham Quay to Salterns.

A spokesman for Poole Lifeboat said: “The Wareham River and soft muddy banks can be quite treacherous in daylight, never mind at night, and the mud on the mud banks is like putty.

“The guys had gone over the sides to try and get the vessel free but had not succeeded, the Sea-Doo was cemented to the spot.

“When the inshore lifeboat arrived on scene and found the group, they were very much ‘stuck in the mud’ and were caked head to foot in sludge.”

The lifeboat crew attached a towline and freed the Sea-Doo.

As the men had been there for several hours trying to get it free, they were freezing cold and were taken back to the lifeboat station.

The spokesman said that they were within an hour of hypothermia taking hold.

They were described as “worse for wear” by the RNLI when they were discovered after they phoned-in their predicament.

They were given hot showers and warm drinks, as well as warm, clean clothes.

Volunteer crewman Stuart Newcombe said: “These guys were extremely lucky and it could have been a completely different ending to this story.”