ONE man died and up to 20 sailors were plucked from the North Sea after high winds wreaked havoc on an international yacht race yesterday afternoon.

Five lifeboats were launched and RAF and police helicopters scrambled in the rescue operation off the Hartlepool coast.

What should have been a fun second day of sailing for those taking part in the international Laser class competition turned to tragedy as one of the judges died of a heart attack and winds capsized boats and left sailors up to five miles out at sea.

It took rescuers just over an hour to ensure that all boats and sailors were accounted for, but it took search and rescue teams from across Teesside about three hours to complete the task of bringing abandoned boats back to shore.

The dead man was a judge in the one-man dinghy competition. He is not believed to be from the area. He suffered a heart attack on a sailing boat at about 1pm.

He was brought into Hartlepool marina and taken to the town's hospital, where he was pronounced dead soon afterwards.

A spokesman for Cleveland Police said: "As a result of worsening weather conditions, when police arrived up to 18 of the 130 boats in the race had got into difficulties.

"The race had started at 9.30am and some of the boats were out as far as three miles when they needed assistance."

Two lifeboats from Hartlepool, two from Redcar and one from Teesmouth were called by the Humber Coastguard soon after 12.30pm when race organisers asked for help.

Along with race marshals, their priority was locating sailors who had got into difficulty in the 45-knot winds and bring them back to shore.

Some sailors had been thrown into the sea and were sitting on top of the capsized boats waiting for help to arrive. Others were left in the water.

Alex Harper, deputy second coxswain at Hartlepool RNLI, said: "Capsized boats and their sailors were scattered around the Tees Bay - at the very least two miles out.

"The majority of the boats were still sailing, so we left them to carry on, but we kept an eye on them, along with the race marshals, because they were dropping like flies.

"One minute they were up and the next they were down.

"The people who were picked up and brought back to shore were exhausted. They had had enough. There were no injuries that we knew about."

He said one of the Hartlepool lifeboats had to help a sailor and two marshals back to land.

The marshals had rescued the teenage diabetic sailor, but then their boat started to take on water and suffer mechanical problems.

Members of Tees and Hartlepool Yacht Club, who are based at Hartlepool marina and who hosted the event, declined to comment on events or the rescue operation.

And the Royal Yachting Association, which organised the world and European qualifying event, did not return calls.

Members of the media were escorted off the yacht club's property and told there was nothing to report.

But one young woman, who was rescued from the water, was still visibly agitated and upset as she tried to pack up her battered boat.

She said: "I have nothing to say, other than my boat is trashed. Nobody wants to talk."

Mike Green, Humber Coastguard watch manager, said the search went five miles out to sea and two miles across.

He said: "This was an awkward incident due to the number of lasers involved.

"Race control are to be commended on the speed with which they requested assistance and for an excellent tally system, which enabled all personnel to be quickly accounted for."

Police Chief Inspector Steve Lawson said: "The rescue teams worked tremendously well in ensuring all crews were recovered speedily."