Displaying items by tag: Making The Difference Awards

3rd September 2010

Red Bay Crew in Line for '999 Hero Award'

Great to read this morning that the Red Bay RNLI lifeboat crew are in line for an award in the Belast Telegraph's 'Making The Difference Awards'. It is a new scheme to recognise those heroes across Northern Ireland whose stories never get told. The Red Bay lifeboat dramatically rescued a brother and sister from rocks on the north Antrim coast at the start of August. We reported it HERE.

The pair were stranded while walking in the beautiful but dangerous boulder field at Fair Head rock. After raising the alarm the crew quickly launched the Atlantic 85 lifeboat Geoffrey Charles and battled through rough waters to reach them.

In order to get to the frightened pair, a 'lifeline' had to be created with a rope. Lifeboat crew member John Walsh had to bravely put on a drysuit and lifejacket, enter the water and swim out to them.

Helmsman Paddy McLaughlin, who has been a member of the RNLI since he was 17, said it was a difficult operation.

"It was a tricky rescue, it took about three hours all in," he said.

"It was just hard to reach them because of the location of the rocks. But we got them safely ashore."

Mr McLaughlin said they are "just doing what they are trained to do".

"We aren't in it for the glory. As soon as we get the call the training just kicks in," he said.

"I suppose you don't think about it."

Competitions

The most significant events for the Half Ton Class has been the annual Half Ton Cup which was sailed under the IOR rules until 1993. More recently this has been replaced with the Half Ton Classics Cup. The venue of the event moved from continent to continent with over-representation on French or British ports. In later years the event is held biennially. Initially, it was proposed to hold events in Ireland, Britain and France by rotation. However, it was the Belgians who took the ball and ran with it. The Class is now managed from Belgium.