Red flares played a vital part in the 14-hour rescue of a yacht by the RNLI in Ireland – the station’s longest callout.
Just before midnight one day in July, Valentia Coast Guard Marine Rescue Co-Ordination Centre asked Courtmacsherry RNLI to go to the aid of a yacht with mast, power and mechanical problems.
The crew of Courtmacsherry RNLI All Weather Lifeboat Val Adnams went to the aid of two people on the 29-foot yacht, which was 69 miles south of Courtmacsherry in West Cork.
They were hit by bad weather when travelling from Cork to France. They were unable to raise the alarm on their VHF radio, so fired two red distress flares which were spotted by a fishing boat crew, who altered the coastguard.
Courtmacsherry Lifeboat Operations Manager Brian O’Dwyer says, “It is not very often that Red Flares are the means of distress communications these days and the importance of having these on board the yacht was ever so important this morning.”
The lifeboat located the stricken yacht around 3.15 AM. As sea and weather conditions were deteriorating, the yacht was safely towed and returned to the nearest port of Courtmacsherry, which took 11 hours.
Mr O’Dwyer says, “It was great to see nearly two voluntary crews and officers arrive quickly at midnight, within minutes of their bleepers being activated, in order to help others in distress at sea. We are so proud of how our new Shannon Class Lifeboat performed in this our longest callout in over a decade and also in very poor conditions.”
Source and image: Courtmacsherry Lifeboat Twitter
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