Four people were rescued on Thursday morning after their 14m yacht got into difficulty and sank 50 miles off the Wexford coast.
A volunteer crew from Kilmore Quay RNLI was requested to launch its all-weather Tamar class lifeboat Killarney by the Irish Coast Guard at 2.44am to assess the situation.
The lifeboat, under the command of coxswain Eugene Kehoe and with four crew members aboard, immediately launched and made its way to the scene.
The yacht had been on passage from Dublin to Vigo in Spain and had left Kilmore Quay on Wednesday afternoon.
On its way to the scene, the lifeboat crew was told the yacht’s crew had made the decision to turn back and was slowly making its way to Kilmore Quay.
Arriving at the location at 5.30am, the lifeboat crew checked that all aboard the yacht were safe and well before assessing the situation. The vessel was found to have sustained a damaged rudder.
A decision was made to establish a towline and return the vessel to the nearest port, which was 50 miles away at Kilmore Quay.
As the yacht began to take on water, the lifeboat crew proceeded to place a salvage pump on the vessel, but such was the speed at which the vessel was taking on water, it was not enough to deal with the situation.
A second salvage pump was requested by the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 117 from Waterford, which was also tasked to the scene.
However, it was decided at this stage to remove the four people from the yacht and transfer them on to Kilmore Quay RNLI’s lifeboat. The yacht subsequently sank.
The lifeboat brought the casualties safely back to Kilmore Quay where they arrived at approximately 11am.
Kilmore Quay RNLI lifeboat operations manager John Grace said: “It is always sad when a vessel is lost at sea but thankfully the crew on board the yacht was safely rescued and are now back on shore.
“The casualties did the right thing in raising the alarm when they encountered problems in the early hours of this morning which helped to prevent the situation from becoming much worse.
“Despite the best efforts of everyone on scene, the vessel took on a lot of water. Our priority then was to ensure that the casualties were taken off the yacht and transferred safely on to the lifeboat.
“We would like to wish the casualties well following their ordeal this morning and we would like to commend our volunteers who, despite the early call and darkness of night, did not hesitate to respond.”
The Kilmore Quay RNLI lifeboat crew involved in the callout were coxswain Eugene Kehoe, mechanic Philip Walsh and crew members Aidan Bates, Sean Furlong and Nigel Kehoe.
