Early morning rescue of 40ft yacht off Old Head

THE Courtmacsherry All Weather RNLI Lifeboat was called out early this morning at 4.35am to go to the aid of a 40ft yacht with four persons on board that got into difficulties 21 miles south east of the Old Head of Kinsale.

The Courtmacsherry Lifeboat, the Frederick Storey Cockburn – under coxswain Ken Cashman and a crew of six – was away quickly from their moorings at 4.47am and proceeded quickly to the area of the casualty.

The yacht on passage from Spain to Cobh had developed mechanical and other difficulties in north easterly Force 5 sea conditions and requested assistance.

Once the lifeboat reached the casualty at 5.45am, Ken Cashman and crew assessed the situation and decided to attach a towline to the disabled boat and proceed under tow at a safe speed in choppy waters to the nearest port, Courtmacsherry.

The lifeboat arrived back to the safe surrounds of the Courtmac pontoon at 8.30am with the yacht in tow. The Courtmacsherry RNLI lifeboat’s Vincent O’Donovan said: ‘It was great to see so many of our volunteers respond so quickly from their beds early this morning to this callout and it was prudent that the yacht made a decision early this morning to seek
assistance in some heavy seas as they had battled the elements from 100 miles off shore.’
The volunteer crew involved in this morning's call-out were coxswain Ken Cashman, mechanic Chris Guy and crew members Mark John Gannon, Dara Gannon, Donal Young, Ciaran Hurley and Denis Murphy.

This has been the third call-out in the last three days with a search for a reported missing swimmer off Garrettstown on Thursday, who subsequently had got to shore themselves, and the rescue of a 13ft rib with one person on board on the same day.