In the early hours of Easter Sunday morning, the crew of Courtmacsherry lifeboat returned to their base, having towed a yacht to Kinsale that had been en route to Spain but lost power and was drifting off the West Cork coast.
The Courtmacsherry all-weather RNLI lifeboat was called out at 7.40pm on Saturday night to go to the aid of a 40ft yacht, which sought assistance 34 miles off Courtmacsherry and due south of the Seven Heads peninsula in West Cork.
Under coxswain Sean O'Farrell with a crew of five, the lifeboat made its way at full speed to the area of the casualty, which had four persons on board and was en route to Spain from Ireland when it lost engine power three days ago. By Saturday evening, they were losing all battery power as well and sought assistance from the Coast Guard.
The Courtmac lifeboat reached the causalty at 9.30pm and immediately took the boat in tow. After a slow tow in good conditions, thel lifeboat and the casualty arrived in the safe surrounds of the Castle Park Marina in Kinsale at 2.45am. The crew of the yacht were well pleased to be back on dry land, as they were drifting helplessly over the past few days in calm winds.
The lifeboat station voluntary LPO Vincent O'Donovan praised the 16 voluntary crew members who responded within minutes to help those in trouble on the sea and all were prepared to sacrifice many other activities on a busy Easter weekend in the village of Courtmacsherry.
The personnel on this long call-out were coxswain Sean O'Farrell, mechanic Tadgh McCarthy and crew members Ken Cashman, Denis Murphy, Evin O'Sullivan and Conor Tyndall.
Having been at sea for over eight hours, the Trent class lifeboat, 'Frederick Story Cockburn' returned to its moorings in Courtmacsherry just after 4am on Easter Sunday, refuelling and getting it ready for whenever its next call-out may occur.
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