37-foot yacht rescued in West Cork by RNLI

A West Cork call out saw a 37-foot yacht escorted to safety by the RNLI on Sunday night amid challenging weather conditions.

The Castletownbere lifeboat was launched around 10.05pm to assist two sailors attempting to travel from Boston to Scotland.

Earlier on Saturday, the Irish Coast Guard’s Marine Research Coordination Centre in Valentia advised the yacht to change course and make for Castletownbere due to deteriorating weather conditions.

As the evening progressed and weather conditions became increasingly challenging, Castletownbere lifeboat, ‘Annette Hutton’, was tasked at 10.00 p.m. and launched immediately.

The yacht was located at 10:46 pm ten miles South-West of Castletownbere. At the time conditions on scene were Westerly Force 6/7 winds and a three-metre sea swell.

As well as the RNLI, a local fishing boat assisted while the lifeboat escorted the yacht.

Once in calmer waters, a lifeboat volunteer went aboard to assist with berthing the yacht at Castletownbere pier.

When ashore, the sailors had refreshments in the lifeboat and expressed their gratitude to the Irish Coast Guard, The Castletownbere lifeboat and the skipper of the local trawler.

One of the sailors commented: 

"It was so reassuring to see the lifeboat coming – we were tired and sea conditions were challenging and we are so delighted to be safe and on dry land now!"

This was the Castletownbere lifeboat's second call-out in two days – on Friday, the lifeboat was involved in a multi-agency search for a missing person in the Ballylickey area.

The Castletownbere lifeboat was launched under the command of Coxswain Dean Hegarty with crew Dave O’Donovan, David Lynch, Marc O’Hare, Alan Cody and Dion Kelly.