A voyage of vision from Achill
Anton McNulty
AFTER months of preparation and planning for their gruelling adventure, the final checks are being put in place by an Achill group who will set off this Sunday on a trip around Ireland by boat.
Two inflatable RIBs – Jack and Maximus – skippered by John McLoughlin from Saula in Achill and Tony Kennedy from Naas in Co Kildare will set off from Johnny Patten’s Pub, Derreens, Achill at 10am on Sunday for a week-long trip around Ireland in a bid to raise €40,000 for St Joseph’s School for the Visually Impaired in Drumcondra.
Along with a crew of five men and one woman, they will travel north on the 900 nautical mile voyage, stopping at various ports along the coast before arriving back to Achill on Sunday, July 21 at approximately 12.30am. Tony’s RIB is 6.5 metres and has a 200 horse power Yamaha engine, while Maximus is 6.8 metres with a 300 horse power engine. The boats will be able to deal with force seven gale winds and have a 70-mile range.
With the route planned out and back-up in place around the coast, the only worry now is that the weather turns for the worst.
“The weather is the main factor now, it was so far away when we planned this in January and the weather seems to have got worse since then,” explained John McLoughlin, the skipper of the Maximus. “A gale of six to seven would be the max we would be able to travel in and it depends on the sea conditions. We made our route plan in such a way that if we do hit bad weather for a day or two we could make it up near the end of the trip, but if we hit a week of it we would be in trouble.”
“If the weather is like last week we won’t achieve what we want to achieve, full stop,” added Tony Kennedy. “It will mess everything up in terms of accommodation, everything we have worked around. Fingers crossed the weather will be fine and we will make good progress.”
Despite the fear of the weather upsetting their plans, they are confident that everything will go according to plan. After months of fund-raising and looking for sponsorship, they are well on their way to achieving the target they set. They are indebted to their families and friends who supported them and to all the sponsors who helped them. They have had all their safety equipment donated to them and their petrol expenses are also paid for.
The crew have a website set up – www.roundireland4stjospehs.com – and on it is the RTÉ report on the school which inspired the men to carry out the trip, and they have urged people to view it.
“Generally people who do not know us have donated to us because of the charity and hopefully we can collect as much money as possible. For us, it will be more of an adventure than anything and we are all looking forward to it,” John said.
