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Displaying items by tag: Mizen Head

#RNLI - Baltimore RNLI assisted two sailors yesterday evening (Monday 14 August) after their yacht lost power off Mizen Head in West Cork.

The alarm was raised earlier in the afternoon following a report from the crew of a 26ft yacht that they had lost all battery power.

At the time, the occupants were comfortable sailing the yacht towards Baltimore, so the lifeboat was put on standby until they were closer.

However, due to a confused sea in a strong tideway, the yacht was making very little progress towards land and required assistance to get to port.

The inshore lifeboat, helmed by Micheal Cottrell and with crew members Ryan O’Mahony and Colin Rochford on board, left station at 7.20pm and met the yacht three miles west of Cape Clear Island just before 8pm.

Weather conditions at the time were relatively good, with a Force 3 south-westerly wind and a one-metre sea swell.

One of the lifeboat crew went aboard the yacht to assist with rigging a tow and, once that was established at 8.05pm, a course was set for North Harbour in Cape Clear where the vessel was moored safely at 8.55pm.

Speaking following the callout, Cottrell said: “The sailors did the right thing in initially alerting people ashore to their predicament and then seeking the assistance of the lifeboat before darkness when their situation wasn’t improving.”

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

#coastalnotes – Following on from Winkie Nixon's blog a fortnight ago about the Sailing and boating wonders of West Cork, here's a selection of aerial views from the Baltimore Beacon to Mizen Head taking in Lough Hyne, Ballydehob, Foil na Muc, Bantry House, Mount Gabriel, Cadogans Strand, Schull Community Inshore Rescue Headquarters and Barleycove on the way.

The Video was shot from a Octocopter UAV platform with a GoPro Hero 3+ and uploaded to youtube by the Eye in the Sky.

Published in Coastal Notes
The full report of the investiation into the loss of a crewman from the fishing vessel Janireh earlier this year is now availble online.
Egyptian national Nadi Sehsaah died after falling overboard from the trawler some 20 nautical miles south west of Mizen Head. It is believed he was not wearing a floation device at the time of the accident.
The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) has said there is an onus on the fishing industry to improve safety standards across the board, accoring to the Irish Examiner - which has more on the story HERE.
The MCIB report is available to download HERE.

The full report of the investigation into the loss of a crewman from the fishing vessel Janireh earlier this year is now available online.

Egyptian national Nadi Sehsaah died after falling overboard from the trawler some 20 nautical miles south west of Mizen Head. It is believed he was not wearing a flotation device at the time of the accident.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) has said there is an onus on the fishing industry to improve safety standards across the board, according to the Irish Examiner - which has more on the story HERE.

The MCIB report is available to download HERE.

Published in Water Safety

Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

RORC Points Calendar

The 2019 race was the first edition to form part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme. 

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.