Boat crews from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) successfully rescued the captain of a fishing vessel after it struck some rocks and began taking on water off Ireland's east coast on Monday, January 20.
Volunteer crews at the Howth and Skerries RNLI stations launched two boats to assist the distressed vessel off the coast of Rush, North County Dublin within ten minutes of receiving the alert at 13:00 local time.
Due to the urgency of the situation, the Irish Coast Guard also requested Skerries RNLI to launch its vessel and for a coast guard helicopter to make its way to the scene. A number of nearby fishing boats offered assistance but were unable to get close to the rocks.
Weather conditions were largely good with light winds but a slight swell on the rocks.
The Howth station boat reached the stricken fishing vessel 15 minutes later. The RNLI crew observed the fishing vessel aground on the rocks and unable to manoeuvre off.
There was one person on board and the fishing boat was taking on water.
The Skerries station boat reached the scene shortly afterwards. Due to the position of the fishing vessel, the RNLI boats were unable to get close to take the fisherman off safely.
The Skerries station crew manoeuvred their boat in close to the rocks and passed the tow line from the Howth station's all-weather boat to the fishing vessel.
The Howth station boat secured the tow line and began to move the fishing vessel off the rocks. Once clear of the rocks, two RNLI boat crewmembers were transferred onto the fishing vessel with the salvage pump and began pumping out the water.
Once the water level was reduced to a safe level, the Howth station boat proceeded to tow the fishing vessel to Skerries harbour escorted by the Skerries station boat and the coast guard helicopter.
"The fisherman did the right thing in calling for help when he realised he was in difficulty," said Howth RNLI coxswain Ian Sheridan. "This was a challenging rescue due to the location of the fishing boat on the rocks. However, with the assistance from the Skerries crew, we were able to safely remove the boat from the rocks and bring the fisherman to safety."