THE mother of a young man who drowned off the Co Wexford coast last year during a crab fishing expedition says she found out “secondhand” that her son was missing while an air/sea search was under way.
Kathleen Sinnott has appealed to the Marine Casualty Investigation Board to ensure that no one should have to endure what she and her husband experienced, before identifying their son’s body at the local lifeboat station on May 15th, 2010.
“It is bad enough losing someone close, but worse when you are told by onlookers,” Mrs Sinnott has said in her letter, which has been published in an official report into the incident by the marine casualty board.
Commenting on Mrs Sinnott’s appeal, the marine casualty board expressed its sympathy but said that the breaking of news to a family was not within its remit, and was a matter for the emergency services.
The report into the loss at sea of Derek Sinnott off Rosslare last May found that no one on the boat was wearing a lifejacket and there were no lifesaving appliances and no VHF transceiver on board when the vessel was swamped while returning to port.
Mr Sinnott (27) had left Rosslare with two crew on the night of May 14th, 2010, to check on spider crab nets. The young man had already been out working at sea on the night of May 13th, when the nets were laid, and worked with his father Philip on board the MFV Hannah's Hopeon May 14th.
He left with two crew on the Duggie's Pride, a five-metre open boat, at about 11pm on May 14th, without his father's knowledge. Weather conditions were good with light northwesterly winds.
The crew had recovered their catch and were returning to port when the boat started taking on water, and one of the men was put ashore on the beach to lighten the load. Minutes after this, the vessel began taking water again about 300m offshore, and both men jumped overboard and started swimming.
When Mr Sinnott got into difficulties the other crew member, his cousin Thomas Sinnott, swam back to assist him, helping to remove his outer clothing, including oilskins and boots. But they became separated and Thomas Sinnott reached the shore alone and raised the alarm.
A search was initiated and the body of Derek Sinnott was located in the water shortly before 11am.
The official report found that the boat was in good condition, but had not been subject to a code of practice inspection for fishing vessels under 15m in length.
The only buoyancy was in the forward seating arrangement. When the boat was recovered, it was floating just below the surface and was not damaged.
The report recommended that the Minister for Transport should remind people of the requirement to wear a suitable personal flotation device in any boat of less than seven metres in length, and of the importance of making a suitable passage plan.