Valentia Coastguard said yesterday the international crew of the 60ft converted wooden fishing vessel the Inis Mil - who were airlifted to safety from a life raft yesterday - did not follow any of the regular procedures of contacting the coastguard when setting out from Kenmare to the coast of France at least nine days ago.
On board were a French woman, two Englishmen, an Australian, and a German national living in Kenmare, Co Kerry.
There was no call in about position or route, and no inquiry about weather conditions.
On September 12th, a week after it set out from the Kenmare river, a female relative of crew member Mr Jurgen Hensel, who lives near Kenmare, contacted the marine rescue station at Valentia to report the vessel's departure and to say there had been no word from the crew of five since it had set out on September 6th.
The vessel was heading for the Isles of Scilly and then on to Le Havre, the Valentia rescue station was told. The Irish-registered Inis Mil, built in 1949 as a fishing trawler and later converted to a sailing ketch, is not in Coastguard records.
Valentia, along with the British and French coastguards, had been checking all the ports in their areas since, but there were no sightings until a mobile phone call from a life-raft managed to alert Cornish rescue services at 9 a.m. yesterday morning.
It emerged yesterday, after the five were safely airlifted to hospital and treated for hypothermia and sea sickness, that the vessel had begun taking in water in the early hours of September 7th, shortly after they had set out.
The bilge pump failed and the five were forced to abandon ship. At one stage they lit a fire to try to alert rescue services. They spent more than a week on the raft, encountering 40ft swells and force eight storms. Flares failed to catch the attention of passing vessels.
Mr Ian Faulkner, the son of English skipper Mr David Faulkner, told reporters team spirit had got them through their terrifying experience. "The focus was the team ... You just have to put your faith in each other," he said.
The life raft did not have a distress beacon to allow rescuers to pinpoint it, and it was only when the raft came within range of a coastal signal in heavy seas four miles off north Cornwall that the mobile, its battery running low, finally managed to get through.
"They were very, very lucky," Mr Martin Bidmead, Falmouth Coastguard manager said.
In Kenmare, yesterday, many people were bewildered at the news. The Inis Mil was a fixture at Templenoe pier on the Kenmare river where it was owned by the Hensel family, an extended family of organic farmers who moved into a mountain farm at Greenane near Templenoe 15 years ago. Believed locally to be Dutch, rather than German, the Hensels are described as "Amish-like people", living and keeping very much to themselves.
The family include two brothers in their late 40s, their father, and younger members. From their scenic farm overlooking Kenmare Bay, the younger members regularly cycle rather than take a car the seven miles into Kenmare. They sell goats' milk and Christmas trees.
Two years ago the male members of the family did a yachtmaster's course in Kenmare.
"That boat rarely leaves, except for a short fishing trip, or a day trip down to Derrynane if the weather is fine," one local man said. The boat was seen departing Kenmare on Thursday, September 2nd, he said.
It is understood they were trying to sell the boat for some time and that this was the reason for the trip to France.
Neighbour Mrs Kitty Doyle said she had been praying for Mr Hensel since learning he had gone missing.
"They are lovely, nice, honest people," she said.
Approached by the press yesterday, family members declined to be interviewed.