The 66-year-old British man who died when his 5.5m yacht capsized off the West Cork coast kept a holiday home and mooring in the wider Schull area.

The sole survivor of the Tit Bonhomme said he had slept for up to eight hours on the trawler’s fishing expedition in January last year, in a fresh statement that challenges the findings of the only official report conducted into the tragedy.

There could have been at least two more survivors of the Tit Bonhomme tragedy if there had been a quicker helicopter response, the widow of its skipper Michael Hayes claimed.

More lives could have been saved in the Tit Bonhomme fishing tragedy if the helicopter response had been quicker, the skipper’s widow believes.

A fisherman who fell from his vessel off the south-west coast yesterday managed to swim one-and-half miles through treacherous conditions before waving for help from a small island.

For one family, the mourning can finally begin. For another, the agonising wait continues.