Gardaí investigating if body recovered off Wexford coast is that of UK sailor who fell from yacht three weeks ago

The as-yet unidentified male was recovered from the water by Wexford RNLI volunteers just east of Raven Point and brought ashore.

The alarm was raised by a local fisherman who noticed something floating off the bar buoy. It is understood that the deceased had been in the water for some time and specialised efforts would be required to identify him.

The remains were taken to University Hospital Waterford, where a full post-mortem examination was due to take place.

“These are very tough shouts to go out on,” Lorrain Galvin, PRO for Wexford RNLI said. “But at the same time, they are very, very important. For one of the guys on board, it was their first recovery. We try to do them with as much compassion for the deceased and their families as possible.”

While An Garda Síochána are refusing to comment until the identification process has been formally completed, sources locally are saying that there are two prevailing theories around the remains.

One is that the body may be that of the Welsh sailor aged in his 50s who disappeared overboard a yacht on April 19, sparking a major search effort involving two Coast Guard rescue helicopters and several different lifeboats.

It was believed that this man went overboard late at night 16 nautical miles south of Dunmore East and the alarm was raised by the other man on board. The men were believed to have been travelling from Brighton to Swansea, via Falmouth and are related to each other.

Sadly, the search has failed to yield any results as there was no sighting of the man.

Another theory surrounded an elderly man from South Wicklow believed to have gone missing after his car was discovered near Ballymoney beach in Wexford on April 14.

However, sources locally have indicated that the remains recovered were possibly a better fit for the former than the latter.

Enquiries are ongoing, but it may even take weeks before a formal identification of the recovered remains takes place.

Meanwhile, just a few short hours after recovering the body off Raven Point on Saturday, RNLI volunteers were back on the water as a major multi-agency search took place at the mouth of the River Slaney, with gardaí watching on from the quayside and the skies lit-up by the searchlight of the Coast Guard rescue helicopter.

Thankfully, it was to be a more positive outcome than earlier events that day.

An emergency call went out after gardaí received a call that somebody had entered the water from “the bridge”. Initial confusion saw resources deployed to both Ferrycarrig and Wexford Bridge and a major search began in earnest, time being of the essence.

Gardaí continued to carry out inquiries on land while the RNLI lifeboat performed sweeps of the harbour, assisted by the Recue 117 chopper from above.

“It was our understanding of the gardaí that somebody was in the water, so every resource available was deployed,” an RNLI spokesperson said.

Gardaí received the call and mobilised at around 8.30 p.m. with the lifeboat launching shortly after.

Eventually, however, the search was stood down. At around 11 p.m. gardaí received confirmation that nobody had in fact entered the water and the search operation was stood down.

“Once we were satisfied that nobody had entered the water, we were happy enough,” the RNLI spokesperson said. “At the end of the day, we would rather always get the call and be there if needed than be too late.”