At a special ceremony held today Sligo Bay RNLI officially named its new Atlantic 85 lifeboat, Sheila & Dennis Tongue, at its station in Rosses Point.

Peter Killen, a member of the Irish Council of the RNLI, accepted the lifeboat on behalf of the RNLI before handing her over into the care of Sligo Bay Lifeboat Station.

He paid tribute to the donors Sheila & Dennis Tongue who had left a generous legacy to the RNLI in recognition of the vital life-saving work of the charity and as a thank-you for the happy days they spent living on the coast at Exmouth.

The couple were born in Birmingham in the 1920s and on Dennis’s retirement they moved to Devon where they lived until their eighties, overlooking the coast. The couple did not have any children and it was during their retirement that they came to know and admire the work of the RNLI and recognise its place in the life of the communities it served.

The couple were represented today by their nephews Raymond and Philip Tongue who travelled to Ireland for the special occasion.

Philip had the honour of officially naming the lifeboat during the ceremony which was also attended by the donor family of Elsinore, Sligo Bay’s former lifeboat which during her 13 years on service launched 189 times and brought 155 people to safety.

The new state of the art Atlantic 85 lifeboat was introduced into the RNLI fleet in 2005. The lifeboat is 8.4 metres in length and weighs 1.8 tonnes. Improvements on its predecessor include a faster top speed of 35 knots, radar, provision for a fourth crew member and more space for survivors.

Since the new lifeboat went on service on Sligo Bay in November it has launched four times to call outs.

During the event, Willie Murphy, Sligo Bay RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager said the naming ceremony and service of dedication was a wonderful occasion in the history of the lifeboat station, and marked the tremendous generosity of Sheila and Dennis Tongue.

‘It is wonderful to have the opportunity to thank the family directly for this amazing generosity. We assure you that you will always have a warm welcome here among us and we genuinely hope you will come and visit. We also commit to you our utmost dedication in ensuring that this wonderful new lifeboat is indeed a lifesaver in Sligo Bay.’

Mr Murphy paid tribute to the volunteers at Sligo Bay RNLI saying it was they who would give the new boat life: ‘It is your commitment and courage that will save lives with her in the future. Being a volunteer, whether on shore or afloat, involves a huge commitment in time and energy and I want to thank you and pay tribute to your dedication. Most importantly I wish all of you who put to sea safe passage aboard the Sheila and Dennis Tongue.’

He thanked the local fundraising branch for their untiring work and praised the generosity of the people of Sligo and further afield for helping to raise funds to enable the station to continue to save lives at sea.

He also thanked the families and friends of the crew, acknowledging that having someone involved in the RNLI was often not easy:
‘Away off for the many training sessions, or when the pagers go off you are being abandoned at the check-out in the supermarket, following down to the station with clothes as they ran off in their pyjamas, or suddenly having to make a whole new set of arrangements for the day. This can be a right pain, It’s not often we get a chance to publicly thank you, but we do today, to each and every one of you for your support.’

A lifeboat station was established at Sligo Bay in 1998. Situated at Rosses Point it is flanked by stations at Ballyglass to the south and Bundoran to the north.

In 1998, a D class lifeboat was sent to the station for evaluation and in 1999 an Atlantic 21 class lifeboat B-525 Spix’s Macaw was placed on temporary station duty on 12 March.

An Atlantic 21 class lifeboat B-512 US Navy League was placed on station on the 26 October.

On the 2 February 2002, B-781 Elsinore, an Atlantic 75 class, was put on service.

The new lifeboat, an Atlantic 85 and the latest version of the B class, was placed on service on the 19 November last year.

A crowd of well-wishers turned up to see the lifeboat officially named today with a bottle of champagne poured over the side of the boat before it launched at the end of the ceremony.

Among the guests officiating at the ceremony were Martin Reilly, Chair of the Lifeboat Management Group who welcomed guests and opened proceedings; Raymond Tongue, nephew and representative of the donor, who handed the lifeboat over to the RNLI, Peter Killen, Member of the RNLI Council for Ireland, who accepted the lifeboat on behalf of the RNLI and handed her into the care of the lifeboat station and Willie Murphy, Sligo Bay RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager, who accepted the lifeboat on behalf of the station.

The Rt Reverend Monsignor Gerard Dolan PP, and the Very Reverend Arfon Williams, led the Service of Dedication

#RNLI - A new Atlantic 85 class lifeboat has gone on service at Youghal RNLI.

The lifeboat, which arrived at the east Cork lifeboat station on Monday evening (11 April), replaces Patricia Jennings, which has been used to save lives at sea in East Cork since 2002.

Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday 12 April) the volunteer lifeboat crew began a week of familiarisation training with their first exercise on the Gordon and Phil.

The new lifeboat has been funded through a legacy from the late Gwenda Bull, a native of Brighton in East Sussex, England, who was a supporter of the charity’s volunteers in saving lives at sea.

The lifeboat Gordon and Phil is named after Gwenda’s parents in their memory. Prior to her death at the age of 82 in 2013, Gwenda who lived near Shoreham lifeboat station which she visited regularly, said her family had always admired the wonderful work of the RNLI.

The Gordon and Phil will be officially named at a special naming ceremony and service of dedication at Youghal lifeboat station later this year.

In her 14 years in Youghal, Patricia Jennings launched 175 times, with its volunteer lifeboat crew rescuing 233 people, nine of whom were lives saved.

The new lifeboat has some advancement on its predecessor. The Atlantic 85 design allows room for four crew members and more kit than the Atlantic 75 lifeboat, which only had room for three crew members.

The lifeboat is powered by two 115-HP engines and has a stronger hull and greater top speed of 35 knots. The added radar allows the crew to operate more effectively in poor visibility and there is also VHF direction-finding equipment.

The vessel has a manually operated self-righting mechanism which combined with inversion-proofed engines keeps the lifeboat operational even after capsize. The lifeboat can also be beached in an emergency without causing damage to its engines or steering gear.

The Atlantic 85, which was introduced to the RNLI fleet in 2005 also carries a full suite of communication and electronic navigation aids, as well as a searchlight, night-vision equipment and flares for night-time operations.

Speaking following the arrival of the new lifeboat, Youghal RNLI lifeboat operations manager Fergus Hopkins said: "We are extremely grateful to Gwenda Bull for her generous legacy donation which has funded our new lifeboat.

"As we welcome a new lifeboat, there is also a sense of nostalgia among us today too as we bid a fond farewell to Patricia Jennings who provided us with 12 great years of service. Patricia Jennings time here in Youghal saved lives and brought many more people safely to shore and we hope her donor family will be just as proud as we are, of her many achievements.

"We are looking forward to being the custodians of this new lifeboat which will allow our volunteers to go on to rescue and save many more lives in the years to come."

#RNLI - The RNLI volunteer lifeboat crew from Larne carried out a training exercise with the Dublin-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 off Ballygally Head yesterday (Sunday 10 April).

The Sikorsky S-92 initially visited Larne on 20 March last when they landed on Curran Point. The visit consisted of a briefing to Larne RNLI crew and included an orientation of the helicopter. The Larne Coastguard team was also present on the day, securing a safe landing zone for the helicopter.

Larne RNLI launched both their relief all-weather lifeboat Windsor Runner and inshore lifeboat Terry yesterday for the exercise to simulate recovery of a casualty to a helicopter in an emergency situation.

The lifeboats practiced manoeuvres at speed with Rescue 116. A crew member was winched into the helicopter and a casualty stretcher was transferred from the helicopter to the lifeboat. The helicopter winchman also landed onto the inshore lifeboat.

The RNLI regularly carries out exercises with other rescue agencies. It is this training that ensures the crew are able to work effectively with other agencies in an emergency situation, including medical evacuation of a casualty to a helicopter.

Larne RNLI coxswain Frank Healy said: "This was a very valuable exercise with the Irish Coast Guard. It's fantastic to step up the volume and breadth of our training coming into what is traditionally a busy summer period for call outs. Our thanks to the Irish Coast Guard for making this exercise possible."

Lifeboat crew past and present, family, fundraisers and well-wishers galore all gathered this weekend to wish one of Rosslare RNLI’s most well-known and respected lifeboat men, a long and happy retirement. Tony Kehoe spent 42 years volunteering with the RNLI as well as working as a fleet mechanic for the charity for a decade.

In a day filled with emotion Tony was taken out on a final lifeboat exercise with his colleagues. The railings down to the lifeboat had been lined with banners and Tony’s family, including his wife Veronica, daughter Sonia, son Brian, son-in-law Kieran, daughter-in-law Louise and grandchildren Robyn, Hannah, Darragh, Joe and Harry were there to witness his final lifeboat exercise. On returning to shore after the short trip, which brought them out past Tuskar Rock, members and supporters of Rosslare RNLI lined the walkway back to the lifeboat station and Tony shook everyone’s hand to receive congratulations and good wishes for a well-deserved retirement.

A reception was held later that evening at Culletons in Kilrane where family, friends and lifeboat people gathered to pay tribute. RNLI Divisional Operations Manager Owen Medland presented Tony with his RNLI Certificate of Service, which detailed every position Tony had held in the charity, including the many years he acted as second mechanic. Rosslare RNLI Deputy Launching Authority and Lifeboat Press Officer Jamie Ryan was the evening’s MC and speakers on the night included Rosslare RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager David Maloney, Coxswain Eamon O’Rourke and representatives from the flanking lifeboat stations Kilmore Quay and Wexford RNLI with both Lifeboat Operations Manager Joe Maddock and Lifeboat Helm David Maguire paying their own tributes to Tony. Well known Rosslare resident Larry Dunne wrote a poem especially for the occasion.

Commenting on Tony’s retirement Rosslare Harbour RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager David Maloney said, ‘We wanted to mark this event properly as Tony has been such an important person in Rosslare RNLI. He is a lifeboat man through and through and while he was never afraid to tell it like it is, he always had the interests of the crew and the lifeboat at his heart. He is one of the first people you would want on the lifeboat on a bad night and we have all benefitted from his advice and counsel over the years. I know we are not losing that and Tony will be a regular and welcome visitor to our door.’

It was Tony’s friendship with former Rosslare RNLI mechanic Matt Wickham that brought him onto the lifeboat back in 1974. His great uncle was Coxswain on the lifeboat for several years and he was born and reared beside the watchbox in Rosslare Port.

Tony reminisced about the changes that had occurred in the RNLI over the past forty years including that now, thankfully, there is a full kit for every crewmember on the lifeboat. Tony said, ‘ Back when I first joined there was one set of kit for the crew who went out on the lifeboat and whoever got there first got the best pair of boots and if you took a big pair of boats and a bigger fella came after you, that was it. There were no pagers so if you didn’t hear the maroon go off someone rapped on your door and off you went.’

Asked about the callouts during his time on the lifeboat crew, Tony said that the one that stood out in his memory was in 1978 with Coxswain Seamus McCormack, who received a bronze medal for the rescue of two fishing crew. Tony added, ‘It was to a Cornish fishing boat, Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur, she sank out there on a bad day. I was the youngest on that callout at just 22 years old. The crew had been trying to get into Milford Haven and a storm came on then and they lost power. During the night while they were adrift they had fired whatever distress signals they could. It was around noon that day when they were burning some stuff in a drum on the deck and a freighter spotted them and raised the alarm and we were launched.’

‘The freighter made a bit of a lee for us and we got a couple of men off it and the RAF helicopter took one man off. We took them off in very difficult seas. It was a bad day with a bad sea and an old lifeboat but everyone was saved and the crew all stayed in Rosslare that night and departed on the ferry the next day.’

Tony’s parting words of advice for his lifeboat crew as he enjoys his well-deserved retirement were short and to the point, ‘Mind yourselves and look out for one another.’

Three fishermen were rescued tonight (Sunday 10 April) in gale force conditions by volunteer lifeboat crew from Kinsale RNLI. The 20 metre beam trawler was forced onto the rocks at Moneypoint, at the entrance to Kinsale harbour, around 1800hrs this evening. See Video below.

Kinsale RNLI was launched at 6.10pm and arrived on scene less than five minutes later to find the vessel on the rocks with three-metre high waves breaking over its deck. The experienced lifeboat crew, led by Helm Nick Searls, dropped anchor and veered down, getting within feet of the stricken boat. The three crewmen then entered the water individually and were pulled to safety on board the RNLI lifeboat.

They were brought to Kinsale RNLI station where they were shaken by their ordeal but uninjured. The RNLI lifeboat returned to the scene to monitor the vessel and to ensure the safety of members of the public who lined the shore to watch the incident unfold. With the arrival of the local Coast Guard on the shoreline, the RNLI lifeboat returned to the station.

Kinsale RNLI Helm Nick Searls said: ‘Our priority was to get the crew safely off the trawler, which was complicated by the breaking waves coming over the top of the boat. We needed to manoeuvre the lifeboat in as close as possible to the stricken trawler so that the three fishermen could individually jump into the water to be recovered immediately by the lifeboat crew. The fishermen were wearing lifejackets and the operation to recover all three of them onto the lifeboat was successful.’

The three rescued men lost all their personal belongings and RNLI volunteers issued an appeal to the local community in Kinsale for clothing and shoes for the men. The station also received several offers of accommodation.

#Search - Two bodies have been found in the search for the missing crew of a fishing vessel that sank off Scotland's Western Isles early yesterday (Saturday 9 April).

One crew member was taken to hospital by helicopter as UK Coastguard teams from Stornaway and Prestwick joined the Barra RNLI lifeboat, local fishing vessels and Police Scotland in the search and rescue operation for three missing crewmates, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

One fisherman remains missing after two bodies were recovered yesterday afternoon off Mingulay. Next of kin are aware and police officers are in contact with the families.

Mark Rodaway, national maritime operations commander for the UK Coastguard, said: “Despite an intensive search including the helicopters, lifeboat and other fishing vessels in the area, we have been unable to locate the missing fisherman. Our thoughts are with all those involved.”

Chief Inspector Alastair Garrow of Police Scotland said: "At this time we can confirm that the bodies of two men have been recovered. A third man was rescued and was taken to hospital at Stornoway. He is not seriously injured.

"A fourth man was on the boat and is still missing. The next of kin of all the men have been informed.

Chief Insp Garrow added: "An investigation will be carried out in parallel with the police and the Marine Accident and Investigation Branch (MAIB) and a report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.

"This has been a tragic incident which will impact on the local community. Our thoughts are with the families affected."

The search has now been scaled back pending further information.

The volunteer crew of Bundoran RNLI lifeboat were requested to launch yesterday evening (Saturday 9th April) to reports of surfers in difficulty off Tullaghan in County Leitrim. The 999 call was made by a member of the public who noticed the surfers struggling to make their way back to shore.

Within minutes the lifeboat launched in challenging conditions and made its way to the scene where the Sligo based Rescue 118 helicopter, who were returning from another incident, had already lifted one of the surfers out of the water. The other surfer was then lifted from the water by the lifeboat. The helicopter landed and handed over the surfer they had lifted to RNLI shore crew. Neither surfer needed medical assistance.

On their return to the the lifeboat station helm Brian Gillespie said 'the surfers had luck on their side with the helicopter passing and our boat being able to launch in such challenging conditions. The outcome was positive on this occasion and we are thankful we were able to get to the surfers on time. We would like to remind anyone who sees anyone in trouble on the coast to ring 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard.

#RNLI - Bangor RNLI’s volunteer lifeboat crew launched at 7pm on Tuesday evening (5 April) to help in the rescue of a yacht whose engine had failed on passage from Stranraer to Bangor on Belfast Lough.

Bangor RNLI’s lifeboat operations manager Kevin Byers was first made aware of the situation by Belfast Coastguard at 5pm when the yacht was 15 miles northeast of Bangor, and knew that it had been taken in tow by the inbound fishing trawler Aurelia.

As the Aurelia was too large to bring the yacht all the way in to Bangor Marina, the Bangor lifeboat was launched just after 7pm to complete the rescue.

The yacht, with two adults and two children on board, was under power as there was little wind and the sea was calm. Unfortunately, the engine stopped and they were being carried by the tide.

Bangor RNLI's volunteer helm Gareth Whan said later: “This was a great example of good teamwork. Luckily, the Aurelia was able to bring the yacht most of the way, and we were able to complete the job, bringing it safely into Bangor Marina.

“Unfortunately, regardless of your preparation, engines can break down, and the lifeboat crew were all delighted to bring this group of people safely ashore."

#Search - One crew member from a fishing vessel has been rescued as the search continues for three others after the boat sank off Scotland's Western Isles in the early hours of this morning (Saturday 9 April).

The UK Coastguard received a distress alert just before 3:45am when the fishing vessel with four crew on board has its emergency positioning beacon (EPIRB) activated near Mingulay.

The coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Stornoway has since been searching the area along with the Barra RNLI lifeboat.

One crew member has been taken to hospital by the helicopter. The lifeboat remains in the area and the coastguard helicopter from Prestwick has taken over so the search can continue.

#RNLI - The new Sligo Bay RNLI Atlantic 85 lifeboat is to be officially named Sheila & Dennis Tongue during a ceremony at the lifeboat station at Rosses Point in Sligo next Saturday 16 April 2016 at 3pm.

The lifeboat will be passed into the care of the RNLI and officially named during a short ceremony and service of dedication by brothers Raymond and Philip Tongue, who are nephews of the couple and will travel to Ireland with their families for the special event.

Mr and Mrs Dennis Tongue left a generous legacy to the RNLI in recognition of the vital life-saving work of the charity and as a thank-you for the happy days they spent living on the coast at Exmouth.

The couple were born in Birmingham in the 1920s and on Dennis’s retirement they moved to Devon where they lived until their eighties, overlooking the coast.

The couple did not have any children and it was during their retirement that they came to know and admire the work of the RNLI and recognise its place in the life of the communities it served.

The new lifeboat that arrived in Sligo last November, as previously reported on Afloat.ie, replaces Elsinore, which during its 13 years on service launched 189 times and rescued 155 people.

Sligo Bay RNLI lifeboat operations manager Willie Murphy, who will be accepting the lifeboat into the care of the station from the Tongue family on behalf of the volunteers, said: "I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the late Mr and Mrs Tongue for their generous and life-saving gift.

"This lifeboat is the vessel that will carry our volunteer lifeboat crew out to sea to save lives and rescue people in difficulty and it will provide our volunteer lifeboat crew the opportunity to train and develop their skills to carry out that work.

"We look forward to welcoming the family of Sheila and Dennis to this beautiful part of the world and we hope this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship with them."

The Atlantic 85 lifeboat was built at a cost of €276,000 and was introduced into the RNLI fleet in 2005. It operates mostly in shallow waters close to the shore or cliffs, among rocks and caves. It is operational in conditions up to a Force 7 and the design accommodates four crew and multiple casualties.

The lifeboat has a top speed of 35 knots and has a manually operated righting mechanism with inversion proofed engines, meaning it can be righted after capsize and kept operational.

The boat is also capable of being beached in an emergency without sustaining damage to the engines. It carries a full suite of communication and electronic navigation aids.

Sligo Bay RNLI crew and management will put their new lifeboat on display to the general public on their station open day on Sunday 19 June.