WITH the support of the people of West Cork and beyond, Shane Begley, the operations manager of the Bantry Inshore Search and Rescue Association (Bisra), believes it will be possible to raise the €1m needed for a new lifeboat and floating boathouse.
The boathouse, likely to cost €600,000, will be one of the first in Ireland, Mr Begley said at the fundraising campaign launch at the Maritime Hotel on Monday night.
‘It has never been done at community level before,’ he said. Meanwhile, the boat, which will cost €450,000, will be state-of-the-art. In fact, the technology is expected to future-proof safety in Bantry Bay for years to come.
In their current boathouse, the Bisra members have to prepare the vessel, roll her out on her launching carriage, check the slipway and walking area, and then bring the carriage down onto the beach and put her into the water to go to the call-out.
Under the new system, the new vessel will be sitting on rollers out of the water. The door will go up and the boat will go out, making it faster and safer, according to the operations manager.
The current lifeboat was built in 2006, and refurbished in 2013, but the engines they are using are not being made anymore.
Bisra also pointed out that the new boat won’t fit in the current boathouse so the way forward for Bantry is a floating boathouse that would make for faster, safer launch and recovery operations.
Mr Begley confirmed that Bisra has already partnered with a Donegal company, Seabound Engineering.
‘The boat is designed. She has been passed by Lloyds Register, and she is waiting to be built,’ he said. All of this depends on securing the necessary funding, but – in addition to taking a targeted approach to securing State and local authority grants, all of which will be conditional on securing planning permission – the association is appealing to every individual, business, community group and organisation to effectively adopt the plan.
Collectively, Shane Begley said they are hoping people can raise anything from one euro to €10 to €100,000 and help make the dream a reality.
Bisra was founded in 1987 after two young boys lost their lives in the inner harbour. Today it comprises about 20 volunteers from all walks of life.
‘We are a declared resource for Coast Guard and we are tasked by Coast Guard, therefore we are audited by Coast Guard and Water Safety and have to come up to their standards,’ the operations manager confirmed. Meanwhile, John Draper, divisional controller of the Coast Guard, travelled from Valentia to support the initiative.
‘The whole proposal is a fantastic initiative by the community here to develop the rescue service here, and also the station facilities,’ he said.
‘We would be very supportive, particularly from the coordination point of view when it comes to search and rescue.
‘When we put up a map of all the resources along the coast, the community rescue boats are a major and integral part of the system, so we are very grateful to Bantry for working with us to provide a rescue service for the coastline here.’
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