Nine people including six children had to rescued today after their boat suffered engine failure in poor weather on Lough Derg.
The alarm was raised at around 3.30pm when persons on the Clare shore spotted that the 30ft cruiser was off course and that those on board were waving at them.
Onlookers alerted the Irish Coast Guard and the Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat based at Dromineer in Tipperary shore was quickly launched.
Unable to restart the engine, the skipper managed to drop anchor before the cruiser ran aground. The vessel was off Mountshannon in Clare at the time.
On reaching the casualty vessel, the lifeboat crew checked that all on board were unharmed before taking their boat on tow.
There were three adults and six children on the cruiser and all were wearing the life jackets. The boat was towed into Mountshannon Harbour.
Conditions on the lake at the time were said to be very poor with a Force 6 wind blowing.
Met Éireann had warned of winds “west force 6 occasionally force 7 and squally decreasing force 5 and gusty later.”
