TWO lifeboats raced to sea over concerns a canoeist might need rescuing on Saturday.

Littlehampton RNLI was called at 3.13pm on Saturday by the UK Coastguard, reporting an unoccupied, capsized canoe.

Both the station’s lifeboats, the rigid, ribbed Atlantic 85 “Renée Sherman” and the smaller inflatable D Class Ray of Hope, right, launched five minutes apart.

The volunteer crews headed out in fine weather to the scene, one mile south of Littlehampton Harbour.

The UK Coastguard requested the lifeboats check an object that had been sighted in the water.

Both lifeboats searched the area, but nothing was found. During the later stages of the search one of the lifeboat crew reported possibly seeing an object under water so the search was extended.

The search ended shortly after 5pm. Nothing was found and the lifeboats were stood down.

The RNLI has more than 1,000 lifeguards on some 180 beaches around the UK.