An Irish trawler fishing 21 nautical miles NW of Strumble Head got into difficulties on Friday, and a textbook response from RNLI lifeboats from both sides of the Irish Sea ensured there were no casualties and the trawler made it safely home.
The fishing vessel made a distress call, reporting a dangerous ingress of water, and lifeboats from St Davids, Fishguard, Newquay and Kilmore Quay stations were launched to respond, while a Coastguard SAR helicopter was first at the secne and lowered a pump to the stricken trawler.
Newquay lifeboat was stood down while on route, and St Davids lifeboat Norah Wortley was the first surface vessel to arrive at the trawler’s position, followed by Fishguard lifeboat Blue Peter VII. With no engine damage and the Coastguard pump reducing the water inide the trawler’s hull to a safe level, the decision was taken to escort it the 35 nautical miles home.
The Fishguard lifeboat was stood down and the St Davids lifeboat lifeboat escorted the trawler a further 20 nautical miles towards Tuskar rock until Kilmore Quay lifeboat arrived to take over the escort.
‘This rescue was a good, fast response from all crews, which with an incident of this nature was exactly what was required,’ said Will Chant, RNLI Coxswain of the St Davids lifeboat.
‘Fortunately the salvage pump from the helicopter was all that was required in order to quell the problems on board the trawler, and after that it was a straightforward but long job of escorting the vessel to safety. Our crew even received ‘welcome to Ireland’ messages on their mobile phones, such was the distance from home.’
