THREE PEOPLE HAVE been rescued off the coast of Wicklow after their vessel suffered engine failure in the early hours of this morning. 

RNLI volunteers responded to an alert at 1.40am and sailed 10 miles out to sea east of Arklow Harbour. 

A yacht with three people on board was discovered and towed back to Arklow Harbour where it arrived safely just after 5am. 

Following the callout , Mark Corcoran, Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer at Arklow RNLI
said: “Huge thanks to our volunteers, who got out of bed in the early hours, to go to sea to
rescue others, thankfully they were able to get to the casualty in good time.”

It is the second rescue in the last 24 hours off the Wicklow coast. 

A sailor was rescued last night after being reported missing from a container ship 16 miles off the Wicklow coast. 

The Wicklow RNLI all-weather lifeboat launched at 10pm last night after the sailor was reported missing from the ship.

The lifeboat arrived in the search area before 10.45pm and began an immediate search.

The Dublin based Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 was also tasked to join the search.

During the sector search the casualty was located just after 11pm by the lifeboat crew.