Irish crew wins award for Arctic rescue

The skipper and leader of an Irish North-East Passage expedition have won a prestigious international award for the rescue of an ice-bound Dutch yacht in the Arctic last summer.

Skipper Mr Jarlath Cunnane, a construction manager, sailor and boatbuilder from Co Mayo, and Mr Paddy Barry, a Cork-born but Dublin-based engineer and polar adventurer, are due to receive the Royal Cruising Club award in London in early March.

The pair were nominated for the seamanship they displayed in rescuing the 17-metre Dutch vessel Campina which was in the second year of its attempt to navigate the hazardous North-East Passage over the top of Siberian Russia.

Mr Barry and Mr Cunnane say they are receiving the award on behalf of the seven-strong crew of the 14-metre Irish-built aluminium yacht Northabout, which is currently wintered in northern Russia. In 2001, Mr Barry, Mr Cunnane and crew, including Mayo-based GP Dr Michael Brogan, undertook the first Irish navigation of the North-West Passage linking the Atlantic to the Pacific on Northabout.

Last year they decided to try and complete the first westward circumnavigation of the Arctic on Northabout, and set off from the Russian port of Anadyr in early August. Good progress was made initially until heavy polar pack ice blocked all progress at mainland Russia's most northerly point, Cape Chelyuskin.

When it became apparent that the pack ice was not going to break up, and the seas began to freeze around the boat, the Irish crew had to retreat south for safety. En route south, Northabout received a radio message from the Dutch yacht Campina, which had damaged its rudders. The yacht required a tow into deeper water, where an icebreaker would make a rendezvous and lift it out.

The Irishmen risked their own safety, in deteriorating conditions, to do the tow. Mr Barry singled out the role of one of the crew, Mr Rory Casey, in ensuring that lines were secure in complete darkness. "He could have been left on drifting ice during several stages," he said.

The Irishmen continued south to the port of Khatanga, where Northabout is now stored and the seven intend to continue the North-East Passage navigation this summer. Mr Barry said that, despite global warming, last year was "a bad ice year, and no boat made it through the North-West Passage either".

Apart from Mr Barry and Mr Cunnane, the crew of Kevin Cronin (Dublin), Colm Brogan (Kinvara), Dr Michael Brogan (Ballyhaunis), Gary Finnegan (Dublin) and Rory Casey (Castlebar) included several accomplished musicians.

Base communications in Ireland were run by Mr Brendan Minish, from Mayo, and the crew also had a Russian ice pilot, Capt Vladimir Samovich.

The expedition will give a slide show and lecture on the 2004 leg of the voyage at the Fáilte Suite, Welcome Inn, Castlebar, Co Mayo, on March 11th at 8pm.