Double win for seafaring Cork couple in photo competition

A CORK couple who are voluntary members of Baltimore Lifeboat have won two of the top awards in the RNLI Pentax Photographer of the year competition.

The competition was open to all volunteers with the life-saving charity in Ireland and Britain.

Eoin Ryan is a Baltimore lifeboat crew member and his wife, Sheelagh Broderick, works as a press officer for the station.

heir entries won best photograph in two different categories.

Judges in the competition had no idea Eoin and Sheelagh were married until they contacted them separately with news of their win.

The results were announced yesterday at a ceremony to mark the opening of the London Boat show.

The two award-winning Irish photographs were taken at Baltimore station.

Eoin’s photograph, judged to be the best taken by an all-weather lifeboat crew member, shows a coordinated exercise between the Baltimore lifeboat and the Sikorsky coast guard helicopter.

Sheelagh’s photograph, the best photograph to be taken by a shore member, was taken from outside the station as the Baltimore lifeboat was launched in storm force winds last July to aid a vessel grounded on rocks.

All of the winning snapshots will be exhibited for the first time at the London Boat Show.

Both Eoin and Sheelagh were delighted an Irish lifeboat station was represented among the winning entries in the competition.

“This is a really important competition as it encouraged RNLI volunteers to record the amazing work carried out by lifeboat crews every day,” said Eoin.

“It will ensure that there will continue to be an amazing archive of photographs for future generations to look back on.”

Now in its second year, the RNLI Pentax Photographer of the Year competition was developed to document the rescue work of the life-saving charity.

All RNLI lifeboat stations are equipped with digital waterproof Pentax cameras to allow real-time, high-quality images of their life-saving activities to be captured.

The overall winning photograph was taken by Bobby Renaud, an RNLI lifeguard from Cornwall in Britain, who photographed a lifeguard based at Treyarnon Beach in Cornwall battling through the surf on an inshore rescue boat during a training exercise last summer.

RNLI chief executive Andrew Freemantle said the high-quality digital images of the life-saving work of the charity’s volunteers were not only crucial to operations but also raised public awareness of the importance of their 24-hour rescue service.

www.baltimorelifeboat.ie