The rewards from the hazardous work of helicopter search and rescue missions far outweigh the potentially deadly risks, a retired winchman has said.

Steady as she goes is the message from Schull Harbour Sailing Club as the organisers of the West Cork season highlight make final preparations for next week’s annual Calves Week regatta.

THE seas are rolling. You’re trying to stand still, to keep the horizons level, the camera dry, the lens in focus and to hold on.

A sea disaster off West Cork over 30 years ago which claimed 17 lives sets the scene for a new film by Jim Sheridan.

Flares burned and horns sounded as one of Ireland’s busiest lifeboat crews sailed their new hi-tech vessel into its new harbour home yesterday.

Lack of wind continued to play havoc with the ASM Marine Frostbite Series at Kinsale, with no racing possible again last weekend and so far two of the three scheduled days have been lost.

THE heroic lifeboat crew involved in some of the state’s most dramatic rescues are training in England this week to prepare for the arrival of a state-of-the-art new vessel.

A SALVAGE crew righted the stricken super yacht Rambler 100 last night after a painstaking, day-long operation off the south coast.

A major salvage operation gets underway later on a yacht that capsized off the Cork coast.

A FORMER captain of a yacht that raced in the 1979 Fastnet Race in which 15 people died, has said the professionalism of both the crew and their rescuers ensured no lives were lost when the Rambler 100 capsized on Monday night.

A DEEP-SEA tug towed the stricken super-yacht Rambler 100 to a sheltered cove on the south west coast last night ahead of a major salvage operation today.

The owner of a €17m yacht which capsized mid-race off the Cork coast has decided to attempt to tow it to shore.

More than 20 crew on board a racing yacht are recovering today following a dramatic rescue when it capsized off the Cork coast.

AS the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet breathed a collective sigh of relief that a tragedy was averted in the Rambler 100 capsize incident, progress continued unabated in the 608-mile race that started on Sunday.

Twenty one people have been rescued after their yacht capsized off the West Cork coast.

FASTNET Lighthouse, one of Ireland’s most remarkable structures, is normally left to the birds to wheel past, and for fish to shoal around.

A RISING star of ocean racing will skipper the Irish entry in a round-the-world yacht race as it crosses the Atlantic to Ireland this summer.

The Fastnet yacht race started today – 30 years since 15 people lost their lives in one of Britain and Ireland's worst modern maritime disasters.

The Irish yacht Chieftain appears to have won the 2007 Fastnet race.

ERIC Lisson is not in the least bit disingenuous when revealing he and his six-man crew expected to win this year’s BMW Round Ireland Race.

CONDITIONS were quite horrible for the final race of the PC Scaffold May Mid Week league at Kinsale, southerly winds of 20 knots gusting, a big swell, poor visibility and rain-like needles to compound the misery.

THE Fastnet Lighthouse conjures up different images for different people.

A STONE monument commemorating the 15 people who lost their lives in the ill-fated Fastnet race of 1979 was unveiled on Cape Clear yesterday.

The Irish yacht Nicorette Challenger has come ninth in its class in this year's Fastnet Race.