Cabin Fever show grounded after ship sinks

The future of the RTE TV survival show 'Cabin Fever' looked uncertain tonight after its nine contestants returned home following the sinking of their ship.

Makers of the show had vowed the contest would continue with an alternative vessel after the Cabin Fever I hit rocks off the Co Donegal coast on Friday.

But the Government’s marine department announced that no licence would be issued for another boat until the cause of the accident had been established.

At midday today the contestants, crew members and production team were taken by boat from Tory Island to Co Donegal and were due to travel back to their homes.

Coco Productions and RTE said they were now reviewing the future of the show with the contestants before making a final decision.

Cabin Fever had been on air for less than a week when the tall ship taking contestants around Ireland ran aground.

Despite attempts to save the boat it broke up and passengers were taken to nearby Tory Island.

One of the contestants – a sports fanatic – decided to swim from the wreckage to the shore.

By early evening producers confirmed that the 27-metre long vessel had sunk, and announced that they had found another ship to continue the series.

But these plans were thrown into doubt with the marine department’s announcement.

It was not known how long investigations into the incident would take.

Cabin Fever is produced by Coco Productions for RTE and began with 10 contestants competing for a €100,000 prize.

The ship was due to sail to a number of coastal locations during the eight-week show, including Bangor, Sligo, Galway, Limerick, Cobh and Dublin.

Every week a contestant was to be evicted from the boat.

The second episode of the programme was being broadcast tonight despite the sinking.

Producers said that when the boat hit rocks the film crew had finished their shift and did not therefore catch the incident on camera.

All money received this week from Cabin Fever voting was being donated to the rescue services.