Independent Senator Victor Boyhan has given his backing to a skipper’s battle for redress over the purchase of a fishing trawler that proved to be dangerously unstable, according to The Fishing Daily.
As previously reported on Afloat.ie, CJ Gaffney and his father bought the beam trawler Mary Kate in the Netherlands in 2007.
The vessel was certified as safe by German authorities, but after a number of close calls where Gaffney says it “almost turned over”, it was discovered that 20 tonnes of unaccounted steel were in the hull.
The Gaffney family subsequently opted to lengthen the vessel for safety and it was issued a stability certificate by the Marine Survey Office in 2009.
But the remedial works left the family unable to afford a new fishing licence for the Mary Kate, and a potential sale to the UK was blocked by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
What’s more, the family attempted legal action against a number of parties including the German Marine Safety Authority but jurisdiction could not be established.
The boat has since been sold off by Gaffneys’ lenders and the family are left with an outstanding loan of €2 million.
A number of politicians have raised the Gaffney’ plight in both the European Parliament and the Dáil.
And Senator Boyhan, a former county councillor in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, is the latest to lend his support to the Arklow fishing family — calling on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to have his department carry out a thorough investigation in to the matter.
“No words can describe the nightmare the family has lived through. They have lost their boat, their fishing licence, their fishing quota, their family investment,” he says.
“They have lost their livelihood, and respectability within the fishing community, they also feel they have lost their good name and their proud maritime heritage spanning five generations of their family. They are financially ruined.”
The Fishing Daily has more on the story HERE.