A 75 FOOT fishing vessel that got into difficulty 27 miles off the coast of West Cork this morning has been rescued.

The vessel, which was 27 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale in Cork, got into difficulty after its hull was breached in bad conditions and it began to take on water.

The five-man crew of the vessel put out a distress signal at 11am, to which both the RNLI and the Coast Guard responded.

A Coast Guard Rescue 117 helicopter was launched from Waterford, arriving at the vessel just after 12 noon.

An emergency salvage pump and winch man was dropped onto the deck of the distressed vessel, working with the RNLI Lifeboat to pump the water from the vessel to keep it afloat.

While the water was pumped out of the vessel successfully, the conditions at sea remained difficult so the vessel was escorted back to shore by the RNLI Lifeboat crew.

The vessel returned to shore just after 4pm this afternoon, with the skipper of the vessel thanking the rescue services for their help.

“Great credit is due to all our volunteer crew members who rushed to answer the callout this morning and headed into very rough seas to help others in distress,” said Vincent O’Donovan, The Courtmacsherry RNLI Lifeboat Deputy Launch Authority.

The crew onboard the RNLI Lifeboat this afternoon included Coxswain Mark Gannon, Mechanic Chris Guy, as well as crewmembers Mark John Gannon, Dara Gannon, Denis Murphy, Ciaran Hurley and Evin O Sullivan.

This was the 13th callout of 2021 for the Courtmacsherry RNLI Lifeboat.