Kinsale RNLI rescues former stage manager with world's biggest rock bands off Old Head

Pete Currier, a 68-year-old,had been solo sailing from Grenada to Wales when he encountered some trouble

Sun, 04 Jul, 2021 - 16:30

Neil Michael

A former stage manager with some of the world’s best-known rock bands has been rescued off the Cork coast.

Pete Currier, who has worked with the likes of UB40, Prince, Nirvana and U2, was on his way to Wales aboard his yacht Sea Symphony when he got into trouble.

RNLI Kinsale came to the rescue of the father-of-three, from Birmingham, and towed him to safety.

The crew of the Miss Sally Anne Baggy II helped the lone 68-year-old sailor, who was on the final leg of an epic voyage from Carriacou, one of the three islands of Grenada, bordering the eastern Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean
— a distance of almost 6,500 km.

He left on May 13 but lost all engine and most of his battery power three weeks into his journey and ended up travelling under sail alone.

But by the time he was within sight of the Old Head of Kinsale, he had lost most of his sails.

By extraordinary coincidence, his two daughters and son all live in West Cork and were able to meet him outside the RNLI Kinsale station for a family reunion.

Peter Currier outside Kinsale RNLI station. Picture: RNLI Kinsale Facebook

A clearly grateful Pete posted on the RNLI Facebook page: “The RNLI Kinsale are some of the nicest people I have ever met.

“Their expertise and commitment leave me humbled.

“It is an institution I have always supported and will do so for the rest of my days.”

Moored in Kinsale harbour, he is a world away from his former job, working alongside some of the biggest names in the rock world.

Indeed, he has worked with some many of them from the 1960s to the early 2000s that he can't even remember them all. U2 stand out, though he isn't sure which tour it was, though from his description it could well have been the PopMart Tour in the early 1990s.

Looking through his Facebook page, which recounts details of his travels from Grenada, there is a smattering of images of him with various bands and their road crew. Memories of his time working with them will doubtless help fill the time as he waits to fix his boat.

Of his rescuers, he said: “They took me to the lifeboat station for a hot shower, told me repeatedly what a lovely boat and even offered to take my laundry home and wash it for me.”

He bought the boat, a Formosa 51(ft) built in 1979 and which sleeps 8 in 3 cabins, in January 2020, and he is in the process of restoring and has so far invested €90,000 in it. He has set up a GoFundMe page in the hopes of securing some help to raise the funds.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/sea-symphony