Carina (yacht)
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Carina was a successful racing sailing yacht which disappeared off Howth Head on the Dublin coast in 1944 with two crew aboard, and is referenced in the Liam MacGabhann poem "Sailing Down the Bay" after two other members of her crew were also lost at sea on another boat.[1][2][3][4] Carina sailed off scratch and regularly won or placed at Skerries Sailing Club races,[5][6][7][8][9][10] and won the 1943 East Coast Championship of Ireland.[11]
The boat was 21 feet long and Bermuda-rigged and part-owned by commercial traveller[1] John 'Jack' McConnell of Rathgar, the 1942-43 captain of Old Wesley Rugby Football Club.[12][11]
Initial sailing
Carina sailed on a falling tide[13] from Skerries about 1 p.m. on Monday, 2 October 1944. McConnell, 26, and crew Kenneth Martin, 23, were sailing her about 20 nautical miles south to lay her up for the Winter at Clontarf. It was expected the journey by sail could be completed within the day as the crew only carried sandwiches for sustenance.[11]
The yacht was seen sailing by the Baily Lighthouse principal keeper in 'heavy weather'[2] about 7.30pm, "trying to beat against a west-southwest wind which broke out of Dublin Bay".[11] But that night the Carina had also been seen about three miles off Howth Head sailing north, the opposite direction to expected.[11]
As the tide had turned northward by that point, it was suggested that rounding Howth Head and the Bailey would have created an unfavourable sea state, and Jack may have attempted a downwind return to Skerries.[13]
It's unknown why they were so far off Howth Head and why they didn't sail for nearby protected Howth Harbour.[13]
Delays
The disappearance went unnoticed, resulting in fatal delays in raising the alarm.[13]
In Skerries, McConnell's parents believed Jack and Kenneth had gone to the home of crewman and Jack's brother-in-law Jack Bolton,[13] but the sailors failed to arrive at Bolton's home, so Bolton concluded the boat had not yet sailed.[13]
It was not until Tuesday night when both parties realised Jack, Kenneth, and Carina were missing from Skerries.[13] At this point, the sailors were probably already lost.[2] Crewmember Kenneth Martin was a marine radio operator by trade,[11] but it would be unlikely a boat so small would have carried radio equipment.
Search
The Air Corps were only notified at 11am on Wednesday, 4 October, two days after Carina's departure.[11]
The air and sea search was reported abandoned by first press Thursday, November 6, 1944, after the Air Corps, Aer Lingus, and Howth Lifeboat failed to find any evidence of the boat.[14]
Lifeboat stations and ships were put on watch after that.[2]
