TWO men who sparked a major Coastguard search when they were reported missing were found drinking in a Hampshire pub.

A panicked phone call from the men's mother led to a massive rescue operation costing more than £10,000.

However all the time the two brothers were sitting in the Bugle pub in Hamble.

The brothers one from Hamble and the other visiting from Vancouver in Canada had left their mother's house in Southampton for a planned dinghy trip.

When their mother had not heard from them by 8pm she alerted the Coastguard who scrambled the Lee-on-the-Solent search helicopter along with launches from Southampton, Hill Head, the Needles, Bembridge and Newport.

After two hours the search was called off when the red-faced mother called back and said her boys were down at the Bugle, having run out of fuel.

Geoff Matthews, watch manager at Solent Coastguard, said: "This was a fairly extensive operation in which we covered Southampton Water and both sides of the Isle of Wight.

"In total we had five teams involved and those would have had two crew members in each. On top of that we also had the Hampshire police marine unit and Southampton patrol. So it involved a considerable amount of personnel and expense."

He said it was vital that people tell somebody where they are when they are out on the water, especially if they change their plans.

"In the first instance we are relieved nobody was injured, but these men could have spared a lot of public expense if they had just picked up the phone and told someone they were changing their plans," he added.