Two children were on board French yacht that crashed near Clare Island

Before sunrise, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the 24 metre French training vessel, Rara Avis, crashed into a salmon farm one mile east of Clare Island.

The Mayo News understands that there were two children among the 25 people on board as the yacht collided with the fish farm pens. They are believed to be between the ages of eight and thirteen.

Given the crash occurred at around half four in the morning, it is likely that some of the twenty five passengers would have been asleep at the time.

The training yacht aided young adults and rehabilitation through sailing and is similar to the famous Irish training vessel, the Asgard II, which sank in the Bay of Biscay in 2008.

Added to the abrupt wake up call was the reports that the vessel was taking on water.

‘A job well done’

Once the emergency call was made, the volunteer Achill Island RNLI was requested to launch at 4.30am on Wednesday morning.

Achill Island RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat launched under Coxswain Dave Curtis and with mechanic Michael Cattigan, navigator Terry Hogarth and crew members Patrick McNamara, Kevin Cattigan and Orlagh Blake-Dillon onboard and proceeded to the scene for the crew to assess the situation. The Irish Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 118 from Sligo was also tasked.

On arrival and with the vessel taking on water, it was decided that the safest course of immediate action was to transfer 16 non-essential crew members from the vessel and bring them safely to shore nearby at Clare Island, a spokesperson for the Achill Island RNLI explained.

The lifeboat crew then returned to the scene to monitor the vessel that was taking on water and remained there until the situation was brought under control by the fish farm. Once this was done, the lifeboat proceeded to Clare Island where the 16 crew were transferred back on to the lifeboat and brought safely to shore at Achill Island.

Achill Coast Guard would like to thank Alice’s hotel in Achill for providing the passengers with tea and coffee until the vessel got back in and it was safe to head back into it.

The lifeboat crew then returned to the scene and monitored the situation until the sailing vessel was removed from the fish farm. The lifeboat then safely escorted it back to Achill, arriving at 8pm.

Speaking following the call out, Dave Curtis, Achill Island RNLI Coxswain said: ‘This was a lengthy call out for our volunteers commencing in the early hours of Wednesday morning and not finishing to late yesterday evening and they deserve great credit for a job well done.

“We would like to commend those on the sailing vessel, those working for the fish farm and everyone else involved yesterday including the Clare Island nurse and the community centre staff. Everyone worked together in challenging circumstances to help bring the crew to safety and to monitor an ongoing situation where a vessel was taking on water and needed to be freed from the farm. This was a time-consuming process but the efforts of all involved ensured everyone came ashore safely.”