AN unmanned yacht broke free from its moorings and was blown clean across the Bay in the weekend's storms.

The yacht managed to avoid all obstacles and ended up grounded on Torquay's main Torre Abbey Sands beach in the early hours of yesterday morning, as the storms brought down trees and caused flooding across South Devon.

The 20ft vessel Sooshe drifted across the Bay in high winds and was spotted by a late-night angler on Torre Abbey at 12.45am.

Coastguards say there was nothing they could do as the yacht was too close to the shore.

A spokesman said: "The yacht was going towards Torre Abbey Sands.

"No one was on board. There were no lights on board and the sail wasn't up.

"It was too close to the beach to do anything."

The rescue operation on the stricken boat attracted hundreds of onlookers yesterday afternoon as it lay on one side stuck in the wet sand.

It was refloated by harbour staff on the 5pm high tide and a cheer went up from onlookers.

The Brixham owner of the yacht, who did not want to be named, said he was 'embarrassed' and upset by the whole thing.

Speaking at the beach yesterday, he said: "The shackle gave up by the looks of it.

"The harbour office rang me this morning. I'm totally fed up about it and feel really bad about the whole thing."

Harbour staff spent the afternoon digging a trench around the port side of the leaning yacht to free its long keel from the sand.

They called on Greenway Quay and Ferry Service whose Dartmouth Belle launch and ferry Lucy were chosen to mount the rescue because of their shallow draughts.

After the Sooshe was successfully refloated and towed to Torquay Harbour, Greenway operations manager John Dart said: "The yacht was very, very lucky and the owner is extremely grateful. The rescue was a bit tricky but the weather stayed on our side."

Wind and rain lashed South Devon over the weekend.

The Environment Agency issued flood watches for river and coastal areas of the Teign, Dart and Tor Bay.

A fallen tree caused motorists problems at Telegraph Hill on Friday night after it blocked the carriageway.

Queues were reported to police and highways worked in blustery winds to remove it and clear the road.

On Saturday, Brixham Road in Paignton had to be closed briefly after a tree came down on a power line at 10.30am.

Firefighters made the area safe and Western Power Distribution isolated the electricity supply.

At the same time on the Totnes Road at Paignton a pine tree fell partially blocking the road and narrowly missing a BMW and cars parked on the forecourt at the Jet garage, Wilding Motors.

Member of staff Liz Stephens said: "It landed six inches from cars. One of our customers kindly came in to say he had a chain saw and he helped."

Up to 4ft of water was reported to police on the B3344 Bovey Tracey to Chudleigh Knighton road.