This is a very busy stretch of water so not only were these two very lucky but their boat could have mown down kayakers, dinghy sailors, etc. Nav buoys are also of the substantial variety so the accident report should be interesting.
RNLI warning on ‘kill’ cord after buoy ejects men | Irish Examiner
The RNLI has issued a warning to leisure boat owners after two men who were thrown from a powerboat in Cork Harbour cheated death.
“Thankfully, this service ended with a good result, but could quite easily have resulted in fatalities,” said Patsy Fagen, Deputy Launch Authority at Crosshaven RNLI.
“We urge all leisure boat users to get trained and always use a kill cord when driving powered vessels.”
The men, understood to be in their late 30s or early 40s, were ejected from their rib after it struck a navigation buoy located near the landmark Spit lighthouse structure in the harbour’s main shipping channel, south of Cobh between Whitegate and Spike Island, some time after 9pm on Saturday night.
The lighthouse is at the end of a mud bank and marks the start of a 90-degree western turn up river towards the city.
The men were thrown into the water but their vessel’s engine continued running, sending the boat spinning out of control up-river in doughnuts shapes.
The alarm was raised when the unoccupied boat ran aground near the Titanic Bar in Cobh around 10.30pm.
A major search and rescue operation was launched involving Crosshaven lifeboat, coast guard units from Crosshaven and Gyleen, the Cork Harbour pilot boat, and coast guard rescue helicopter 177.
Crosshaven lifeboat under Helm Alan Venner with James Fagan and Harry O’Rourke began a creeping search from Spike Island while the coast guard units combed other parts of the harbour.
However, word came through a short time later that the missing men had been found on shore by local gardaí.
Exhausted, shocked and suffering the effects of mild hypothermia, they had swum up to 300-metres from the collision site and had come ashore just east of the Cork Harbour pilot boat headquarters.
They were medically assessed as Crosshaven RNLI and Crosshaven coast guard boats recovered their badly damaged rib and towed it back to the lifeboat station.
An RNLI spokesman said the incident highlights the importance for powerboat users to use a kill cord — a connector chord linking a master switch governing a boat’s engine and electrical power to its driver’s leg.
If the driver goes overboard, the chord is designed to automatically cut the engine power.
A man lost part of his left arm in a similar incident in Cork Harbour in June 2012.
His power boat continued motoring after he fell overboard, striking him several times as he struggled in the water.
An investigation found he that had not been wearing the vessel’s kill chord because it hadn’t been working properly.
Meanwhile, two rescue services patrolled the seas off Donegal when a wedding party raised a false alert. A member of the public in Ballyshannon, spotting a red flare over the bay, raised the alert.
Malin Head officers immediately tasked both Killybegs and Bundoran rescue services.
Both boats spent an hour searching for a vessel in distress before they were advised fireworks had been set off on the coastline at the time the 999 emergency call was made.
The Creevy Pier Hotel, confirmed there was a fireworks at a wedding party.
Bundoran lifeboat helm Karol McNern said: “Thankfully this was just a false alarm and we are, as always, happy to launch to something that people may be unsure of rather than not be launched at all.”
