#rnli – Wicklow RNLI has rescued four fishermen from a 26m French fishing trawler which got into difficulty in the early hours of this morning (Friday 22 March).
The volunteer lifeboat crew responded rapidly and in severe weather conditions when requested to launch by the Irish Coast Guard at 3.15am.
The Mayday call was to go to the aid of a 120 tonne French fishing trawler, the Bara An Aod, which had suffered engine failure two and a half miles east off Wicklow Head.
The four crew members aboard the French boat had been on a delivery passage from France to Ireland when the vessel got into trouble.
Weather conditions at the time were blowing a strong south easterly force nine gale with torrential rain and a three to four metre breaking swell.
Arriving on scene at 3.55am on what was its first call out of the year, the all-weather lifeboat the Annie Blaker, and her crew under Coxswain Nick Keogh, located the trawler and proceeded to establish a towline.
The stricken vessel was subsequently towed safely back to Wicklow Harbour by the lifeboat where it arrived at 5am.
Speaking after the call out, Tommy Dover, Wicklow RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer commended the efforts of an experienced lifeboat crew who he said was met with challenging weather conditions in the dark hours of the morning: 'The crew responded very quickly to the Mayday call and had the lifeboat launched within 10 minutes of being alerted. It was such a bad night but the experienced crew confident in the lifeboat's ability to meet the conditions, skilfully responded and were thankful and delighted to be able to assist the four crew members and their vessel safely to shore this morning.'
The lifeboat crew on this call out included Coxswain Nick Keogh, mechanic Brendan Copeland, Ciaran Doyle, Tom McAuley, John Vize, Connie O'Gara and Graham Fitzgerald.