Ocean Youth Trust Flagship Vessel The Lord Rank has sunk off the coast of Ballycastle.

Wednesday 09 June 10

Six people, including three Downtown radio presenters, were rescued by lifeboat crews on Tuesday night after the 70ft yacht hit rocks near Ballycastle.

Those involved were all taking part in a charity fundraiser on board the Lord Rank when the boat ran aground off Kinbane Head shortly after 10pm. Downtown Radio was broadcasting from the boat as part of the charity campaign.

The yacht was being used for Downtown's Cash for Kids charity and was on its way to Portrush when it got into difficulties.

When they established they were stuck they called the Coastguard.

Lifeboat crews were sent from Red Bay and Portrush and took about half an hour to reach them.

In the meantime a Russian trawler stayed close by.

A dinghy was used to get the six men off the yacht - they had to jump into it for the transfer to the main RNLI boat.

Downtown presenter Dougi Marshall fell into the sea in the process of this, but was quickly pulled out by the lifeboat crew.

Sadly the ship could not be rescued and it disappeared beneath the waves early on Wednesday morning.

DJ Johnny Hero said it was a frightening experience.

"I was sitting going through photographs on the laptop and bang, it was like the scene in Star Trek where the Klingons attack the bridge and everybody gets thrown everywhere," he said.

"I was thrown from one end of the living quarters to the other."

He added: "The boat seemed to be see-sawing back and forth.

"Frightening, because we're only landlubbers. Our first thought was 'is there a hole in this boat? How long do these boats take to sink?'"

WIMPS has a long standing relationship with Ocean Youth Trust. Just last month the WIMPS crew were on board the Lord Rank filming a WIMPS Cast environment special.

The Lord Rank is a vital part of the Ocean Youth Trust’s programme and while it is fortunate that no one was hurt in this incident it is of course a terrible tragedy that they have lost such an important part of their organisation.

Our sympathy is with them at this time  and we are keen to see them bounce back from this unfortunate set back.