At seven o’clock yesterday morning Karl Chavrat Jnr saw that he had received several voicemails from his father Karl Chavrat Snr, who he knew was undertaking a passage on his yacht from Norfolk, UK to Madasgacar.

The messages on the phone were ones of panic indicating that Karl Snr was in distress. They were followed up by SMS messages, giving the last known position of Karl Snr.

Karl Jnr, then phoned his father who was able to give details of what had happened.

Karl Snr, had put out mayday calls and fired distress flares, but with no response. He was able to confirm his position sitting on some rocks, approximately 20 miles south of Salalah.

A friend of Karl’s called the coastguard by dialling 999 and was connected to Thames Coastguard, who passed all information to Falmouth who are the UK maritime rescue coordination centre responsible for liaison with international search and rescue authorities.

Falmouth Coastguard was then able to alert the search and rescue authorities in Oman of Karl Chavrat Snr’s distress situation and give them his position. The Oman authorities rescued Karl Snr. from his situation using a helicopter and he is now being treated in hospital for his injuries, a dislocated shoulder and cuts to his legs which required some stitches.

Fred Caygill from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: “We are pleased we were able to assist in the execution of a successful rescue of Karl Chavrat Snr from his distress situation, even though it was outside of the UK search and rescue region.

Mr Chavrat Jnr and his friend took the right course of action in dialling 999 and asking for the Coastguard, as we were then able to pass all the relevant information to our colleagues in the Oman Maritime Administration who carried out a successful rescue”