Pilot boat pulls Moville vessel to safe waters

coastguardLondonderry Port’s pilot boat the “Foyle Leader” joined forces with the Coastguard yesterday morning (Wed) to pull a local boat to safety from the rocks at Carrickarory, Moville. Port harbour master Captain Bill McCann was aboard the pilot boat when he noticed the small yacht washed up on the rocky shoreline and called for assistance.

The Coastguard’s main rescue boat was returning from attending another vessel in difficulty at Greencastle but its smaller D-class rib went immediately to the scene, attached a rope and brought it out to the pilot boat which then towed the stricken vessel safely out into the Lough. Coastguard crew member, Cathal McGuinness, who had boarded the stranded yacht from the shore then steered her to Greencastle harbour under tow by the “Foyle Leader”.

The yacht is owned by Moville boat club member John O’Kane from Derry, who thanked Londonderry Port and the Coastguard for their speedy rescue of his yacht “Delta Blues”, whose moorings had snapped. “There wasn’t a drop of water in her and she wasn’t damaged at all,” he said, “but another half an hour on the rocks and it would have been a different story – I might not have had a boat at all!”