Thursday 9^th September 2004

Lifeboat assists Motor Cruiser

 Castletownbere lifeboat assisted a 25’ motor cruiser, with three people on board, which was stranded off the west Cork coast yesterday afternoon.

 The boat had left the village of Baltimore earlier in the day and experienced mechanical failure and put out an immediate request for help. Castletownbere’s RNLI lifeboat “Annette Hutton”, under command of Coxswain Brian Driscoll, and crew Brendan Gonnelly, Michael Martin Sullivan Snr., Paddy O’Conor, Dan Murphy and Michael Martin Sullivan Jnr., launched at just after 6.00 p.m. and located the vessel 30 minutes later adrift three miles north west of Mizen Head in easterly force 5 conditions with a moderate swell.

 Lifeboat crew managed to rectify the problem and restart the boat’s engine, and the vessel was escorted back to Castletownbere yesterday evening. Commenting on this and other recent rescues, Coxswain Brian O’Driscoll stated: “The last week has been extremely busy with four-call outs making a total of 26 rescues already this year. Our new Severn Class lifeboat is certainly being put to good use”.

ENDS

 Friday 10^th September 2004  10.00 a.m.