Crew of stricken yacht in 'good spirits' after 14-hour rescue mission

THE crew of a yacht which got into difficulty more than 60 miles of the south cost are said to be in good spirits after the vessel was successfully towed back to port.

The alarm was raised shortly before midnight after emergency flares from the yacht were spotted by the crew of a fishing vessel, Harvest Reaper II, as it passed nearby.

Valentia Coast Guard was alerted to the incident - south of the Old Head of Kinsale in County Cork and the Courtmacsherry Harbour Lifeboat was immediately dispatched.

It arrived on scene at approximately 4am and a tow was established.

The rescue mission concluded when the lifeboat and yacht arrived into Courtmacsherry harbour at 2.30 this Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Irish Coast Guard, weather conditions were reasonable throughout and the two person yacht crew are reported to be in good spirits. 

Divisional Controller at Valentia Coast Guard, John Draper, has extended his congratulations to Courtmacsherry RNLI on the successful completion of the rescue operation - the first since the introduction of its new Shannon class, All Weather Lifeboat.

Courtmacsherry Lifeboat Operations Manager Brian O Dwyer commented:  “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. 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”