King's Lynn pleasure boat the Baden Powell now afloat after running aground

The Baden Powell, a historic boat which was stuck on the river since Saturday afternoon is now afloat.

The rebuilt Worfolk double-headed fishing boat, the only one of its type surviving in the world, run aground at the weekend and needed the services of a lifeboat crew to rescue eight passengers.

The drama happened on Saturday when the Coastguard requested the launch of the RNLI hovercraft from Hunstanton.

Project leader Tim Clayton said: "The boat is built to cope with getting stuck, we just had to wait for the tide."

The Baden Powell, which was originally built in the Worfolk shipyard in Lynn in 1900, had run aground near West Stones Buoy at the lower end of The Wash, in the channel leading into the Great Ouse.

The ship is now used as a pleasure cruisere and aboard were four male and four female passengers, and three crew.

The boat was described as hard aground when the hovercraft arrived. The passengers were taken on board the Hovercraft, four at a time and taken to the pontoon staging at Lynn into the care of the coastguard response team.

All were safe.

The crew stayed on board intending to float off on the rising tide but it was still aground yesterday.

Project Leader of the Baden Powell Tim Clayton has said work is under way to get the ship back moving again.