THE coxswain of Dunbar’s lifeboat came to the rescue of a familiar face. . . his dad.

Gary Fairbairn was part of the crew called out on the all-weather lifeboat in the early hours of Monday morning.

His dad David – a former RNLI crew member during the 1980s – was aboard L’Ogien with two crew members, 1.5 miles north of Torness, when the boat suffered engine failure.

UK Coastguard paged the lifeboat crew at about 4.50am, who launched the all-weather craft.

L’Ogien’s engine had been switched off at night to allow the crew to fish but when David Fairbairn and his two crew were unable to restart L’Ogien they had to call for help.

Arriving on the scene, the volunteers transferred three mechanics to see if they could fix the problem as the vessel’s generator had also failed.

A tow was set up to take the L’Ogien to Eyemouth, but one and a half miles north west of St Abbs the mechanics managed to fix the generator, allowing the battery to recharge and restart the power.

The crew went back to fishing under their own steam and the lifeboat dropped the tow and returned to Torness at 8am.

Gary Fairbairn, who has been involved with the crew for more than 20 years, told the Courier: “All joking aside, when you hear the name of the boat you wonder what is going on.

“Obviously as you get more information you can relax – it was a bit of a family affair.

“He was absolutely fine but they had lost all power and he was looking for a couple of electricians to have a look at it.”

It was not the only time this week the crew was called out to help a familiar face.

Last Thursday they went to the aid of a boat owned by crew member Alan Ross.

The inshore lifeboat was launched at about 3.40pm.

Mr Ross’ rigid inflatable boat (RIB) had suffered engine failure near to the town’s harbour and it was towed back to dry land.