MINEHEAD'S lifeboat crew smashed the station's record for the number of call-outs in a year when it went to the aid of a cabin cruiser on bank holiday Monday. The distress alarm sent out by the 22ft Misty Spirit was the 35th 'shout' for the crew, breaking the previous record of 34 in a year set in 1986. Watchet-based fisherman Steve Yeandle, aboard Scooby Doo 2, was the first to respond to the alarm, which came just after 11am as he was returning to the town's harbour after a fishing trip. The cruiser, with a man and woman and two dogs aboard, set out from Cardiff earlier that day but suffered engine failure close to the shore on the Blue Anchor side of Watchet harbour. By the time Minehead's Atlantic 75, with crewman Paul Marsh at the helm, arrived at the scene Mr Yeandle had got a line to the cruiser and begun to tow it back to Watchet. RNLI operations manager at Minehead Kevin Escott said the lifeboat stayed close to the two boats. "The conditions were pretty horrendous," he said. "It was a very rough sea, with winds gusting between force six and seven against an ebbing tide. "At one time the tow line broke but they managed to reconnect it." Scooby Doo 2 towed the cruiser into the outer harbour at Watchet, after which a lifeboatman was put aboard for the final tow into the marina. "Scooby Doo did an excellent job," said Mr Escott. "We've had a very busy season, with a variety of shouts and we don't really know why. "But to have broken the previous record by August is really something."