A search for two fishermen missing since the Maggie B trawler sank off the Wexford coast on Wednesday night will resume at first light this morning.
The third crew member, Krzysztof Pawtowski, was found clinging to a life-raft about 50 minutes after the Mayday alert was raised. The Polish man was making a good recovery in hospital in Waterford yesterday.
The missing men are skipper Glenn Cott, a single man in his early 30s from Ballycotton in Cork, and Jan Sankowski (45) from Poland. The Maggie B, a 15.5 metre long steel beamer, sank 8.6 kilometres south of Hook Head in about 50 metres of water.
This was the first voyage for the boat after it was bought by Anthony and Joseph Walsh from Cork. They had planned to fish from Ballycotton. The three crew had been trying out the boat and fishing for 27 hours when the distress signal was received. The engine room filled with water and the boat sank very quickly. The Maggie B, which was built in Holland in 1989, sank in British waters in the early 1990s and was then overhauled and lengthened, it emerged yesterday. It underwent a pre-purchase survey at the end of February.
The fishermen did not have life-jackets or survival suits on. "They wouldn't have had time to put them on. The boat went down very quickly," said Chris Reynolds, Irish Coast Guard's incident manager. He said the "Mayday" alert was issued at 11.05 pm and the Dublin Coast Guard raised the Dunmore East and Kilmore Quay lifeboats. At 11.56 pm, the Dunmore East lifeboat recovered Mr Pawtowski, who had inflated the vessel's life-raft and clung to it.
"When they recovered Krzysztof he was hypothermic but has since made a good recovery," Mr Reynolds said. He was being treated in Ardkeen Regional Hospital in Waterford yesterday.
"He was very lucky. The lifeboat literally came upon him. It was a mixture of a lot of experience and a good dose of good luck."
Mr Pawtowski, who is in his early 30s, came to Ireland in mid-January with a friend, having worked as a pot fisherman in Poland. That friend joined in the search for the other two men yesterday. Relatives of Mr Cott also joined in the search with the owners of the boat and their families.
The search is being co-ordinated on-scene by the Naval Service vessel the LE Ciara, captained by Tony Geraghty. The Dunmore East and Kilmore Quay lifeboats were out searching yesterday with seven local trawlers, a couple of smaller boats and the three Coast Guard helicopters from Dublin, Shannon and Waterford.
About 60 volunteers searched the coastline along Fethard, Kilmore Quay and Ballyteigue with coastguard teams. As weather conditions deteriorated and darkness fell, the search was called off and was due to resume early today and continue over the weekend. Debris from items on the boat was picked up by the search parties yesterday but the boat itself was thought to be on the sea bed.
"We thoroughly exhausted the search areas over and over again today but came up with nothing only fish boxes and bits and pieces," Mr Reynolds said. He said the search would now shift from a search for survivors to a search for the deceased.