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The two men who bought the trawler that ran aground off the Irish coast on Sunday night were “tripping over ropes” and appeared not to know anything about boats.
A fisherman from Castletownbere who remembers seeing the men briefly on Friday said: “They hadn’t a clue.”
The men, who were dressed in dark clothing, were taken out around the harbour by the owner of The Castlemore and brought to Dinish Island.
There, the boat’s owner, who has owned it since 2017, bought about €900 worth of safety equipment from local firm Swan Net Gundry.
This included an emergency life raft, an automatic release kit for the life raft and a set of emergency flares.
There is no suggestion the owner had any insight into the men's plans for the craft.
As the boat approached the pier at Dinish Island, the men were seen standing with their hands in their pockets at the back of the boat, while the owner was in the wheelhouse manoeuvring the boat.
'They barely lifted a finger'
“They barely lifted a finger,” the fisherman, who asked not to be named, said.