Coroner calls for overhaul of safety measures for pleasure boats

A coroner has recommended an overhaul of safety measures and requirements for people taking to sea in recreational boats around Ireland.

Dr Denis McCauley was speaking following a two-day inquest into the deaths of an uncle and nephew who drowned off the coast of Donegal.

Thomas Weir (16) and Gerry Doherty (63) died when their 19ft boat capsized off Malin Head on July 17th, 2018.

The only surviving member of the party, Dessie Keenan (45), fought back tears as he gave evidence at Letterkenny Courthouse of the final moments of the tragedy.

The coroner made the recommendations after hearing there were almost no safety requirements, training or licences needed for an estimated 60,000 recreational boat owners around the State at present.

Among the recommendations are: to ask the Minister for Transport to implement previous recommendations for mandatory training of all those taking vessels to the sea; to educate seafarers that a mobile phone is not adequate for communications; to educate on the wearing of life jackets; and to make the code of practice for recreational craft more user-friendly.

Barrister for the late Mr Doherty, Peter Nolan, compared the situation to cars not having an NCT test and said at present people could go out to sea in all sorts of “bangers”. Coroner Dr McCauley said on sunny days we now had potentially 60,000 vessels around Ireland with two or three people on board with no requirement on them to assess risk. “If they [the Department of Transport] don’t think it’s important, they should tell us why,” he said.

He was speaking at the end of two days of evidence at the inquests of the two men who drowned. Some of the most harrowing evidence came from the only survivor of the tragedy, Dessie Keenan.

Mr Keenan, who is from Derry and a son-in-law of the late Mr Doherty, was in the water for more than six hours. He survived by holding onto a fender attached to the front of the boat after it submerged.

He was eventually rescued by a passing lobster fisherman. He told the inquest how their engine had failed and they decided to anchor to get the engine going again.

He knew they were in trouble when he looked at the face of Mr Doherty and saw panic. Water suddenly came rushing into the back of the boat and Mr Doherty instructed Mr Weir to get the life jackets and told Mr Keenan to call the emergency services.

His frantic call to the emergency services was played to the court. He can be heard saying: “I need the coastguard, yeah off Malin Head, the boat is sinking, the boat is sinking...” All three were then thrown into the water.

The jury of four men and two women reached a finding that the death of both men was an accident. They said the cause of Mr Doherty’s death was due to drowning and Thomas Weir’s death was due to asystolic cardiac arrest due to submersion in sea water.