Air and sea rescue fails to locate missing boat

A FAINT mayday call on a ship-to-ship channel sparked off a full-scale air and sea search yesterday for a suspected sunken, but unidentified, fishing boat.

A baseball cap, two sets of gloves, a small fridge and food supplies were among the debris recovered.

The discovery increased fears that a small inshore fishing boat, possibly with a crew of two, had gone down off the Wicklow coast. A full search is scheduled to resume at first light today but the authorities last night remain baffled that a boat had not been reported missing.

The Dublin Coastguard centre, co-ordinating the search, said no fishing craft is known to be missing in Ireland or Britain.

A naval ship, which stayed in the area last night after the search was scaled down, has sent samples for laboratory testing after a slight oil trail was discovered around 8pm. The small slick was found farther off the coast, extending the search area.

The search was concentrated initially in an area about three miles off Greystones. Last night, the focus was on an area about nine miles off Wicklow Head.

The alarm was raised after a Wicklow boat picked up a mayday broadcast around 9am on a marine VHF radio, channel 8, not normally the emergency channel. Naval boats, participating in Dublin Bay security arrangements for the EU accession ceremonies, initially joined the search.

The LE Roisín, under Lt Cdr Tim O'Keeffe, replaced the LE Aisling around 12 noon to co-ordinate the on-scene search.

Three RNLI lifeboats from Dun Laoghaire and Wicklow were also involved along with Coastguard helicopters from Dublin and Waterford, an Air Corps spotter plane, local fishing vessels and pleasure boats.

Shortly before noon, clothing, fish boxes, oil drums, a rope ladder, food supplies, paint tins and brushes were sighted from the air and recovered about three miles south of Bray.

Dublin Coastguard said it was continuing to contact all known fishing vessels along the coastline.

All known boats which went to sea in recent days have contacted authorities. Marine rescue in Holyhead and Milford Haven said no British boats had been reported missing. All boats at sea were yesterday notified of the search and requested to report anything seen in the water or along the coastline.

The naval service's press officer Cdr Gerard O'Flynn said the LE Roisín would stay anchored off Wicklow Head throughout the night.