A lifeboat crew battled 40mph winds to rescue a yacht that got into difficulty in a storm.

Fraserburgh RNLI volunteers were sent to retrieve the Gemima and her three-man crew off Gardenstown in Aberdeenshire on Sunday.

They got the yacht under tow near Troup Head despite rising winds and towed it into Macduff harbour.

The Gemima was four days into a journey between Struer in Denmark and the Caledonian Canal.

A spokesman for Fraserburgh RNLI said: "Passing Fraserburgh, the crew of the Gemima thought they had beaten the bad weather but conditions deteriorated rapidly with the wind speed increasing from 20 knots to 35 knots in a matter of minutes as they were off Troup Head beside Gardenstown.

"When they lost their main sail and their top sail they had no hesitation in contacting the coastguard.

"A measure of the atrocious weather conditions which the crews faced can be gauged by the fact the visor on a Macduff volunteer crewman's helmet had been ripped off by the ferocious wind and another had lost the sole of his boot."