A hoax call about a capsized boat has landed a Manitoba man in hot water.

The RCMP and the Canadian Coast Guard received a mayday distress call at about 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

The caller said a boat had capsized with as many as 16 people on board and at least 13 were in the dark water of Lake Winnipeg, near Gimli, RCMP said.

Members from the RCMP, Canadian Coast Guard, local emergency services, and a Hercules aircraft were dispatched to the scene.

After searching the area, it was discovered the call actually came from a lone man in a boat about one kilometre from shore, near the Winnipeg Beach harbour.

A 36-year-old man, from the rural Manitoba community of Matlock, is facing several charges. Police believe the man was intoxicated at the time.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Miles Hiebert said the fake call put a lot of lives at risk.

"The resources that were deployed in this particular rescue effort are immense. We know that technicians have been injured jumping from Hercules [aircrafts] trying to do legitimate rescues in the past," he said.

Joel Greenberg, a commercial fisherman and president of the Gimli Harbour Authority, said he wonders what the man was thinking when he put out the fake mayday call.

"Even being intoxicated, where would you even get the idea to think to send out a mayday, and get all these people in action, and spend all this money and all this time and effort?" he said.