Irish Coast Guard Rescues 14 Fishermen From Grounded Trawler

The Irish Coast Guard has successfully rescued the crew of a French fishing vessel that drifted onto the rocks near Dingle, a small port on the southwestern tip of Ireland.

On Sunday morning, the trawler Fastnet lost power while outbound from Dingle. Before the crew could recover propulsion, the boat drifted towards the rocky shore near the Dingle lighthouse, just outside the sheltered harbor. With strong winds and heavy swells, there was little time to prevent a grounding.

At about 1130 hours that morning, the master of the Fastnet made a distress call to the Irish Coast Guard, which dispatched multiple assets to the scene, including a fixed-wing search plane and the helicopter aircrew Rescue 115. The Dingle coast guard unit's response boat, the RNLI lifeboat out of Knightstown and the Irish Navy patrol vessel George Bernard Shaw also got under way.

The local response boat crew tried to get a line across to establish a tow, but the rough surface conditions and shallow near-shore waters made this impractical. The only possibility was to evacuate the crew by air. Despite rough weather conditions and patchy fog, the helicopter airlifted all 14 crewmembers safely from the Fastnet and delivered them to shore.

Fourteen people were winched to safety after a fishing vessel ran aground at Dingle Harbour, Co. Kerry, Ireland.

Valentia MRSC coordinated the rescue with support from Coast Guard helicopters, the RNLI lifeboat, and Dingle Coast Guard.pic.twitter.com/CUz1tzVcAu

— Volcaholic ???? (@volcaholic1) December 14, 2025

According to Irish media, traces of diesel have been spotted on the surface, suggesting a likely hull breach. The trawler continues to be battered by stormy weather, raising concerns of further pollution if it should break up.

Fastnet is a 28-meter bottom trawler built in 2000. It is French-registered, Spanish-owned, and based in A Coruña, according to fishing industry media.