Five people rescued after two incidents on Lough Derg

An RNLI lifeboat rescued five people, including an elderly man and a teenage boy from a sinking boat, in two separate incidents on Lough Derg on Saturday.

The Lough Derg volunteer crew was alerted to the first incident at 3.45pm when the Irish Coast Guard received a report of a family in difficulty near Corrakeen Islands.

The two adults and one child had taken their 20ft boat onto the lake for the first time this year when they suffered engine failure.

Without power or means to control the boat, the vessel was pushed by wind onto the Corrakeen Islands.

The lifeboat crew arrived at the scene and found the family in a distressed state.

RNLI spokeswoman Eleanor Hooker said: “The three people on board unharmed but extremely anxious. A crew member was transferred to their boat to assess for damage and, very quickly, once it was established that the vessel was not holed, set up for a tow to take the boat with her crew to Dromineer Harbour.”

The team had no sooner returned to base when they had to respond to a more urgent call.

A 28ft cruise boat was reported to be taking on water and sinking rapidly forcing an elderly man and teenage boy to abandon their vessel and take to their life-raft.

The lifeboat located the cruiser and the life-raft north of Coolbawn on the shore of Lough Derg.

The man and boy were unharmed, but the skipper was “greatly distressed”. He had inadvertently veered off course and had glanced off a rock and holed his boat.

A passing speedboat with also came alongside and gave assistance.

Any effort to remove water from the sinking boat required an industrial- strength pump, but none was available. The lifeboat crew opted to intentionally beach to boat and drop its anchor to prevent of drifting and sinking.

Ms Hooker said: “Two lifeboat crew members helped the people from the life-raft and onto the speedboat which had a canopy and offered shelter from the wind. As the cruiser was rapidly taking water, they weighed anchor so that the lifeboat could beach the vessel and reduce risk of further damage.”