The Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard was called out late last evening to assist a lone sailor who got into difficulty on Lough Derg.
The volunteer team was tasked at 9.08pm by watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue coordination centre on Valentia Island in Kerry.
It had been reported that a sail boat with one person on board that had ran aground 1km north of Killaloe on the Tipperary shore of Lough Derg. By 9:15pm, a boat crew launched from the Coast Guard base at Pier Head Killaloe and within minutes had a visual on the casualty vessel.
A passing power boat had also come to the aid of the sail boat and towed it to deep water where the sailorattempted to carry on their journey towards Killaloe. However, but the sail boat again began drifting into shallow water. It was established this was due to a prop foul.
The Coast Guard boat came alongside the casualty vessel and transferred a crew member on board. A tow line was set up and the vessel was then taken on tow to Killaloe where a shore team assisted in the safe mooring of the vessel.
