A close friend of missing Kinsale skipper Ger Bohan yesterday said that searchers are confident that they have located the wreck of the Honeydew II over three miles off Ram's Head in Co Waterford.
John Walsh, skipper of the Rachel J who had been fishing close to the Honeydew II when she sank in the early hours of January 11th, said they had recovered a handrail from the missing vessel when they trawled the location yesterday.
Mr Walsh said another trawler, the Lovon, from Baltimore, under skipper Kieran Murphy, had received very strong sonar soundings at the location and the Rachel J had dropped a creek, or multi-pronged grappling hook, and recovered the handrail.
"It's about four metres long, three bars with stanchions - it is definitely from the Honeydew II, - I know it myself and I showed it to the former owner, Brendan O'Driscoll, and he also confirmed it's from the Honeydew II, so we're sure that we've found her.
"The first person I contacted was Ger Bohan's wife, Mary - she was very relieved - it's been a long two weeks or so but hopefully this is the first step towards closure," said Mr Walsh.
Father-of-four Ger Bohan and his crewman, father-of-two Tomasz Jagla from Poland, have been missing since the Honeydew II went down somewhere off Mine Head after being hit by a 15- metre-high wave.
Declan Geoghegan, of the Irish Coast Guard, said a team of Garda divers is on standby in Dungarvan and will travel out to the scene today to assess the situation and see if it is possible to carry out a dive.
Meanwhile, a strong spring tide yesterday prevented a Naval Service dive team from searching for the bodies of five missing crewmen on board the Pere Charles, which is lying in 35 metres of water after sinking just over two miles off Hook Head in Co Wexford on January 10th.
According to Lt Commander Terry Ward, of the Naval Service, the divers spent yesterday afternoon putting down a shot to mark the spot and they expect to commence the first of two dives on the sunken trawler at 8am today.