Irish sail training hits choppy waters

The sinking of the 'Lord Rank' this week is a blow not only for the ketch itself but could have a long-term adverse effect on sail-training in Ireland

WHEN a 70ft ketch issued a "pan-pan" emergency alert off the north-east coast earlier this week, few in the marine rescue sector could believe it. Just 20 months after the loss of the brigantine Asgard II, off north-west France, Ireland's only active sail-training vessel, the Lord Rank, had also foundered.

To the credit of sail training, and the rescue services, there was no loss of life or injury in either incident. “We got the skipper off last but he had to be taken over the bow rail as the ketch was right up on the rock,” said RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) Red Bay station helm Paddy McLaughlin.

The rescue, involving RNLI Red Bay and Portrush lifeboat crews and Ballycastle coastguard, along with vital illumination from the Irish Coast Guard’s Sligo-based Sikorsky helicopter, took about three hours.

The yacht – owned by Ocean Youth Trust Ireland (OYTI) – was en route from Ballycastle to Portrush, and finally to Derry, with three trained crew and three Downtown radio presenters on board. The radio staff had set up a floating studio to raise money for the Cash for Kids charity.

They became news themselves when the ketch hit Carrickmannon rock, a charted but unlit reef that’s hidden at high tide. It is just off Kinbane Head 10 nautical miles west of Ballycastle.

"I was going through photographs on the laptop, and 'bang', it was like the scene in Star Trekwhere the Klingons attack the bridge and everybody gets thrown everywhere," Downtown DJ Johnny Hero told the BBC. "I was thrown from one end of the living quarters to the other."

“It was sad to see the boat, with its navigation lights on in the darkness, as we left for shore,” RNLI helm McLaughlin said. A salvage barge happened to be in the area but by 4am on Wednesday, the yacht had slipped under, claimed by the notoriously strong Rathlin Sound tides.

As with the Asgard IIsinking on September 11th, 2008, there will be an official inquiry. The OYTI is loath to comment on the sinking during the investigation, but it has a fleet of 10 dinghies and keelboats for young sailors, and intends to stay afloat. The draft inquiry into Asgard IIcredited the ship's captain, Colm Newport and four crew, with a textbook evacuation. It was unable to come to any definitive conclusion about the cause but suggests the ship hit a container or other object, possibly a whale, in darkness en route to La Rochelle.

The €3.8 million insurance for the brigantine was paid to its owner, the Department of Defence, and then returned to central coffers – despite promises by former defence minister Willie O’Dea to salvage it and, when that plan was abandoned, to build a steel replacement.

Coiste an Asgard ,the national sail-training organisation set up by Charles Haughey when he was finance minister in 1968, was effectively scuppered by the Government last year. It had been targeted as a cost saving measure by "An Bord Snip Nua" (or the McCarthy report).

So for both the OYTI and Irish sail training in general, the loss of the Lord Rankthis week comes as a particular blow. The Northern Ireland based trust celebrated its 50th anniversary in February, was certified over the past two years to take trainees out in the Republic's waters, and had berths for 18:10 young people, two youth workers and six sea staff.

AS WITH COISTEan Asgard, the private trust was established to offer young people from all backgrounds an opportunity to spend time at sea at minimal cost, nurturing self-reliance and selflessness. "A bridge between land and sea," was how Asgard II's last master, Newport, described his ship.

Thousands of young people spent time on its decks, climbing yardarms, cooking and scrubbing “heads”, or toilets, and learning to navigate by the stars.

Yet it was an open secret that the Department of Defence didn’t attach significant priority to the programme; there was minimal marketing, and a heavy reliance on the goodwill of the brigantine’s crew, a small administrative staff and the voluntary efforts of Coiste an Asgard. “The miracle is that the programme functioned for so long and so well,” said Winkie Nixon, who wrote, with the late Capt Eric Healy of Asgard, a history of sail training.

David O'Brien, editor of Afloatmagazine, and chairman of the Irish Marine Federation, says the sequence of sinkings begs several questions. "We also had the Cork entry in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race hitting rocks in Indonesian waters last January.

“Accidents do happen. But is this the way of the sea, or is there something we need to look at?” he says.

“Obviously, investigations have to take their course but if you were a parent, would you be happy now to let your child take a berth on one of these ships at sea? Does sail training need far more support?”

Nixon believes it is time to take stock; we are not Vikings, after all. “We’re not really a maritime country – we’re an agricultural people who live on an island. Horses and cattle are much more important than ships, and when things get tough it’s futile to rail against this reality.”

Waterford is due to host the Tall Ships Race next year, for the second time – but with no Irish sail trainer present. However, Nixon argues a significant proportion of the world’s tall ships are not government-owned (though many navies see it as an integral part of training).

Nixon points to the role played by the French-Irish sail-training organisation, Glenans, formed after the second World War by members of the French resistance and lovers of Ireland, the late French couple Philippe and Hélène Viannay.

“It has several very successful Irish bases, no airs and graces, and its own members gave it a dig out when it had a recent financial hiccup.

“I think it has done more for sail training in Ireland, with far less noise and puff, and we are very lucky to have it.”