A group of mates on a fishing trip have been rescued off the Gold Coast after spending 10 hours on a sinking boat, bucketing the water out by hand.

The five men were on board the Big Shot trawler 50km off the Gold Coast when water started rushing into the engine room.

“Oops this isn’t good, we’re sinking,” one says.

The man scrambled to grab buckets and containers to scoop the water out by hand

“We’ve got the vacuum going, we’ve got the 18-vault pump and we’ve got two buckets,” they said.

The men called for help and waited until rescuers appeared with a LifeFlight helicopter keeping a keen eye from above.

NSW water police arrived and towed the boat back to the Gold Coast as the sky darkened and night neared.

“This is humbling,” one of the men said.

The group arrived back at land exhausted but alive.

“It took us 3 hours just to get back to shore,” one of the men told 7NEWS.

“We got the motor going this morning, all the sea water would have damaged the electrical,” Spencer Robinson said.

The crew say their close call won’t stop them from getting back out on the water but there will be some changes to the boat.

“I’ll put a camera in the engine bay,” Robinson said.