After naming his new boat Titanic II, Mark Wilkinson had to be rescued when the vessel sank on its maiden voyage.
The 16-foot cruiser began shipping water within moments of setting sail from West Bay on the south coast of England, with Mr Wilkinson pulled from the water by the local harbourmaster. Mr Wilkinson said: "It's all a bit embarrassing and I got pretty fed up with people asking me if I had hit an iceberg."
Southern man
After discovering that his children had come home from a birthday party without getting ice cream or a slice of cake, a father returned to threaten the host with a loaded gun. Joseph Haynes, 48, from Memphis, Tennessee, was charged with aggravated assault after being arrested at the scene of the party. He is alleged to have waved the gun and shouted: "Y'all didn't save my kids no damn ice cream and cake."
Clothes call for rower
A lone sailor known as the "Naked Adventurer" has abandoned his attempt to row across the Indian Ocean without clothes.
Keith Whelan was rescued by a merchant ship near the coast of Western Australia after suffering a head injury caused by the impact of a large wave.
Mr Whelan had hoped to become the first Irishman to row across the Indian Ocean and had announced his intention to attempt the feat naked because he feared the sun and salt would cause clothes to chafe against his skin. A spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said Mr Whelan had suffered a serious laceration, but that they had no information if he was wearing clothes at the time.
Confession, 65 years late
The mystery of who killed a leading Dutch businessman in 1946 has been solved following the confession of a 96-year-old woman.
Felix Gulje, the owner of a construction company who was considering running for political office, was shot in the chest after answering the door at his home in the town of Leiden. The assassin has now been identified as Atie Ridder-Visser, after she sent a written confession to the town's mayor. She had been a member of the Dutch resistance and wrongly believed Gulje was a Nazi sympathiser. It was revealed after his death that Gulje had secretly sheltered Jewish families.
Wife feels awfully special
Police abandoned the hunt for a woman feared to have drowned after she fell off her husband's yacht when the man suddenly remembered she had not come with him on the voyage.
The distraught sailor called the emergency services near Kalmar in southern Sweden, saying his wife had fallen overboard. After arriving on the scene, officers found the man alone on the boat with a broken rudder and no sign of his wife.
It later emerged she was safe on land, and had not accompanied him on the trip.
Officials said that they suspected alcohol might have played a part in the man's error and arrested him.
