Atlantic Masters, the Galway open water swimming club which is celebrating its 10 year birthday this year, has donated equipment to the value of €5,000 to the Galway RNLI Lifeboat Station in the New Docks.
The donation was from proceeds of the annual open water swimming race known as the Atlantic Lifeboat Swim which was held last September at Rinville Pier, Oranmore. In total, the Atlantic Masters raised €10,000 which was split evenly between the Oranmore Maree Coastal Search and Rescue and the Galway RNLI Station.
Fergal Madden, Chairperson of the Atlantic Masters and one of the organisers of the Atlantic Lifeboat Swim said: “It is great to see the money raised from the swim going back to our local lifeboat station who are on hand 24/7 at a moment’s notice to put to sea when called upon. We were delighted to visit the lifeboat station, meet the crew and get a demonstration of the equipment that everyone who participated in the swim contributed to buying.”
“Last year’s Atlantic Lifeboat Swim was a challenge to organise with the unfavourable weather all summer but our third rescheduled date finally went ahead with over 160 swimmers taking part from all around the country. The club held two events, and the day started with a 400m Try a Swim for swimmers who may not have a huge amount of experience of open water swimming. This gave them a flavour of what it is like to train for and complete a challenge, on an out-and-back course that was close to the shore at all times. The main swim was a 2.0km race with swimmers on a course around the swim buoys out to the 1Km marker and back.”
The Atlantic Lifeboat Swim is an annual event and plans are afoot to hold the 6th annual Atlantic Lifeboat swim at the end of June this year.
Sean Óg Leydon, Deputy Launching Authority with Galway RNLI was also involved in organising the Atlantic Lifeboat Swim and welcomed the Atlantic Masters members to the lifeboat station last week. He said: “We are very grateful to the Atlantic Masters for their ongoing support of the RNLI and the work that we do to save lives at sea. Thanks to their support we have been able to upgrade the IT equipment in our control room, we procured additional equipment for training and we also intend to install a bicycle shed to house crew bicycles while out on a shout. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to show the Atlantic Masters around the station to see first-hand how the equipment they donated will help us when we are out on search and rescue on Galway Bay.”
