It was the morning of Saturday 24 May 2008 and the sailor, en route from the Azores to Ireland, was in considerable pain. He struggled to control his yacht in the rough seas that would inevitably worsen – gales were expected for the evening. There was no choice but to radio for assistance.

Communication was difficult and the Coast Guard couldn’t make out the size of the yacht: was it just 4m? One thing that was heard loud and clear, though, was that the skipper would not leave his boat, which had been his only home for 7 years. That ruled out a helicopter airlift, and the nearest naval vessel was 16 hours from the scene. The only hope of rescuing the injured man lay with the Castletownbere lifeboat crew in County Cork.

Coxswain Brian O’Driscoll and his crew were paged at around 10am. Brian realised the lifeboat would be at the limits of her fuel reserves: ‘It takes a lot of fuel to tow a boat, especially if it’s only small and you’re heading into a gale,’ he explains. ‘If you go too quickly, it could get swamped, or the person aboard could be injured. It looked like it would take 4 hours to get out there and possibly four times that to get back.’

Brian knew the casualty’s fate could not be left to chance and, if he closely monitored the lifeboat’s fuel on the passage out, there should be enough to complete a tow. As he mustered the crew for launch, he made it clear to each volunteer that they could be at sea for as long as 14 hours. ‘It’s a long time to be away. Every volunteer had the option to say “no” but they were all willing.

’Extra provisions were hastily gathered to keep the crew’s energy up before the Severn class lifeboat Annette Hutton slipped her moorings at 10.30am. Aboard with Brian were Mechanic Martin Cronin and Crew Members John O’Leary, Sean O’Sullivan, Cian Murphy and Michael Murphy. As they headed out, the calm of the harbour gave way to rough seas and a fresh breeze, but the all-weather lifeboat made short work of the swells. Meanwhile, an aircraft updated the lifeboat crew on the yacht’s position – and size. It turned out she was actually a more substantial 11m.

On side

At about 2.20pm, Annette Hutton arrived on scene. The sailor was standing in his cockpit and began to gingerly lower the mainsail as the lifeboat neared. Brian was keen to transfer a crew member to the yacht, to check on the casualty and establish a tow. But the seas were too rough to bring the 17m lifeboat alongside without a risk of collision. So Brian asked Sean and Michael – both fishermen by trade – to launch the lifeboat’s small inflatable daughter vessel, the Y boat.

‘The conditions were a force 5–6 at this stage, so the Y boat was operating at its limits,’ says Brian. ‘But Michael did well at the helm and there wasn’t far to go between the lifeboat and the yacht.’Michael safely brought the Y boat to the yacht and Sean climbed aboard to assess the casualty. There is little medical assistance possible for broken ribs so Sean simply advised the man to transfer with him to the lifeboat where it would be more comfortable. But still he would not leave.

Sean rigged up a tow bridle, securing a rope to the yacht’s port and starboard capstans, doubling it over, just to be sure. ‘It’s not an easy thing to do in those conditions,’ says Brian, ‘but Sean and Michael have experience of that kind of work and I bore that in mind when I selected them.’ The lifeboat’s tow rope was skilfully thrown across to Sean, who attached it to the bridle and bade the casualty farewell, promising to radio every 15 minutes to check he was still safe during the tow. ‘He was grateful but adamant that he wouldn’t leave his yacht,’ adds Brian.

With Sean and Michael back aboard, the lifeboat crew set off for Castletownbere at about 3.30pm, a long, gruelling journey ahead of them. In the now force 7–8 conditions and 4m swells, the men had little time for rest – Brian rotated the duties of helming, navigating, watching the tow and operating the radio. ‘It’s very draining, because you’re physically steadying yourself against the sea, and mentally keeping an eye on the tow and the lifeboat,’ reflects Brian.

A tricky pass

In the meantime, the Irish naval 65m offshore patrol vessel Aisling had launched to assist. Around 30 miles from Castletownbere, Annette Hutton and Aisling were in sight of each other and it was agreed that the latter would take over the tow. But this was easier said than done.

First, the naval vessel did not have a suitable tow rope and asked if it could use the lifeboat’s and return it the next day. Further, transferring the tow involved side, with the risk of the two vessels colliding. A thinner heaving line attached to the tow rope then had to be thrown to the naval vessel and secured while the lifeboat crew slackened their rope. ‘There was a danger that the rope could have fouled our propellers too,’ adds Brian.

The tricky manoeuvre was completed without trouble, however, and the lifeboat crew powered back to Castletownbere. ‘In some ways we would have liked to see the whole job through to the fi nish,’ says Brian, ‘but it did get the crew home sooner and we had a chance to discuss the rescue on the way back. We had a sense of a job well done because we had got the man out of trouble and it was a relief to him.’

Extra time

After more than 13 hours at sea, the lifeboat returned to her mooring at 11.45pm. The rugby cup match that the crew members had all hoped to watch on television, featuring local club Munster, had long since fi nished. And, 12 hours later, some of the crew were needed again.

The casualty had spent the night with the Navy but now needed to go ashore for further medical treatment. The Navy’s RIB was unusable in the now severe gale force 9, so the lifeboat towed the yacht and her skipper to Castletownbere: another 1¾ hours’ service.

‘They gave up their whole weekend,’ says Brian of the crew, who received a Letter of Appreciation from the RNLI’s Operations Director Michael Vlasto. ‘It was the furthest we’ve been on a shout, but we were the only asset at the time that could have done it. Without us he could have been caught injured in the middle of a storm. So our fi rst instinct was to launch fi rst and ask questions later – I’m glad we did. And Munster won their match!’