Six sailors were rescued after a yacht slammed into a fish farm during a terrifying overnight voyage in gale-force winds off the coast of Northern Ireland.
The dramatic rescue began around 3:22 a.m. Saturday after the Belfast Coastguard received a Mayday call from a 46-foot yacht near Cushendall.
The vessel had been traveling from Oban, Scotland, toward Portugal when it collided with a fish farm in Red Bay.
The impact left the yacht without power or steering, trapping it among the fish farm cages as winds reached around 60 knots.
A volunteer crew from Red Bay RNLI immediately launched an all-weather lifeboat, while an inshore lifeboat was also sent to help.
The rescue team faced brutal conditions, including Force 9 winds, heavy rain and complete darkness.
When crews reached the yacht, they found all six people on board alive and uninjured.
The problem was getting them out.
The yacht was still badly tangled in the fish farm equipment, and the rough seas made an immediate rescue dangerous.
Coxswain Paddy McLaughlin decided the safest option was for the sailors to remain aboard while the lifeboat stayed nearby and monitored the situation through the night.
The crews waited until daylight, which arrived around 7:30 a.m.
After hours of work, rescuers finally managed to free the yacht from the netting at about 9:30 a.m.
The damaged vessel and all six sailors were then escorted safely to Glenarm, arriving around 10 a.m., where members of the Larne Coastguard were waiting to assist.
McLaughlin described the mission as a difficult but successful rescue.
“This was a challenging call out in difficult weather conditions, but we were delighted to bring the sailors to safety,” he said.
He also praised the Coastguard and the volunteer lifeboat crews who responded in the middle of the night and spent roughly seven hours at sea in severe weather.
McLaughlin called the rescue an example of the dedication and training of volunteers who put themselves in dangerous conditions to bring others to safety.
