A Belgian man caused alarm yesterday when he risked his life by refusing to be rescued from a small dismasted yacht that risked overturning in rough seas off Wied Iż-Żurrieq.

He is believed to have eventually made it to safe harbour in Marsaxlokk on his own steam at about 9pm, after a rescue helicopter had to return to base due to the difficult conditions.

The armed forces had received a report in the late afternoon that a yacht had broken a mast and a man was in difficulty.

However, the man, who was the only person on board the nine-metre Caracal, refused offers of help even when a rescuer was winched down from a helicopter, an AFM spokesman said. The wind was at that point blowing at gale force and the boat was at risk of overturning.

Any further rescue efforts became very difficult and the helicopter returned to base, although the AFM continued to monitor the yacht.

The Malta International Airport weather website had earlier warned that the south to southeast wind would last night become strong to very strong over the islands and at times reach gale force.

In the meantime, the high wind damaged a 33kV cable between Mosta and Mellieħa, tripping a 132/33 kV transformer at the Mosta Distribution Centre, Enemalta said.

The incident happened at around 7.30pm and an outage was reported in the northern part of the island, including parts of Mellieħa, Buġibba, Qawra, Mġarr, Marfa, St Paul’s Bay, Sliema, Gżira and Gozo.

By 8pm all affected localities had been switched back on, Enemalta said.