A young Connemara man lost his life in a sailing accident off the Galway coast at the weekend. A hooker regatta had been planned for Leitir Moir yesterday before the accident occurred.
He has been named as Mr Stiofan Mac Donnchadha from An Cheathru Rua. Single and in his 30s, he was one of three crew on a 21-foot gleoiteog which was sailing with another vessel from Casla to Great Man's Bay.
The accident occurred on Saturday evening, during calm weather conditions. The gleoiteog was off Gorumna island when it is believed the ballast shifted, and a plank in the vessel lifted. The boat capsized and sank.
Two of the three people on board were rescued by the second vessel - crewed by the brother and sister of the man who later died.
The Irish Marine Emergency Service received a distress call by mobile phone from an onlooker onshore, and called in the Aran islands lifeboat, the Shannon-based IMES Sikorsky helicopter and the local coast and cliff rescue team.
Mr Mac Donnchadha, an experienced sailor, was an hour in the water before he was located. He was flown in a critical condition by the Sikorsky helicopter to University College Hospital, Galway, where he later died.
Local vessels which joined in the rescue on Saturday evening resumed the search yesterday for the sunken vessel.
