#Lifeboats - Castletownbere’s all-weather lifeboat launched last night (Wednesday 10 October) to a Mayday from six fisherman whose boat lost power and was drifting rapidly towards the shore.
Pagers sounded for the volunteer RNLI crew at 7.30pm following the alert to the Irish Coast Guard from the 25m fishing boat, which had fouled its propeller at the entrance to the West Cork harbour.
With time of the essence, coxswain Dean Hegarty and his four crew launched immediately and the lifeboat was on scene within five minutes, at which point the vessel was just 20 metres from the shore.
The boat had been blown into a small area by Pipers Rock at the harbour mouth in south-westerly Force 8-9 gales and amid a 4-5m swell.
The lifeboat crew worked quickly to set up a towline and rescue the boat and her crew from immediate danger before bringing them safely back to Castletownbere.
“Given the weather conditions and how close the fishing boat was drifting to the shore at this point, the lifeboat’s timely arrival managed to avert a potential tragedy,” said Paul Stevens, Castletownbere RNLI lifeboat operations manager.
“The fishermen did the right thing in raising the alarm when they did and we would like to wish them well following what must have been a challenging experience.”