Drogheda Coastguard’s busyyear

DROGHEDA Coastguard had one of its busiest years to date in 2017 with 54 emergency incidents over the past 12 months.

The organisation also took on six new recruits at the start of 2017.

The emergency callouts attended by Drogheda Coastguard included Missing Person Searches (MPS), People in difficulty in the River Boyne, towing vessels which had broken down to rescuing people from upturned vessels, assisting Rescue Helicopter 112 and Rescue 116, land searches for missing people, administering First Aid and helping to locate missing children at the beach.

The six new volunteers took part in many training weekends to upgrade their skills including Sea Survival/Boat Capsize at the Maritime College in Cork, Advanced Power Boat, Search Land Management, VHF Course, Occupational First Aid, Search and Rescue Course and Manual Handling etc.

The organisation also attended over 20 primary schools, talking to over 2,500 children about water safety.

The unit was also involved in several events which included; The Irish Maritime Festival, Slane Concert, the Drogheda 10K Run, The Boyne Swim the Christmas Charity swim at Salterstown and also visited the children’s ward at our local hospital with Santa as their guest.

During this period the unit rescued 12 people from the river Boyne and the sea.

One of the most dramatic and successful rescues took place back in April 17th, just east of the Bar at Mornington where three young males in their twenty’s got into difficulty in a vessel which then capsized, they had no lifejackets but held on to their upturned boat until Drogheda Coast Guard boat crew arrived and located them just in time.

The Coastguard also located and rescued several people who got into difficulty on the Boyne during the year.

Unfortunately 2017 was also a difficult year where they assisted in the search/recovery of six people, including assisting the gardaí in two of these search/ recoveries which took place on land and four in the River Boyne.