· It was his first sailing lesson
· Violent storm came from nowhere to capsize boat
An Irishman who is presumed drowned after a boating accident in New York was not wearing a life jacket, and was on his first sailing lesson when a violent storm knocked him overboard.
A coastguard search for 30-year-old Eoin Curran, a computer programmer from Templeogue in Dublin has been suspended having covered an area of over 100 nautical square miles.
Mr Curran and two other students whom he’d just met, were on a 23-foot sailing boat with an instructor form the New York Sailing School, at Long Island Sound, on Sunday afternoon, local time, when a sudden squall blew the boat steeply to one side.
Mr Curran and the instructor were thrown into the water.
The instructor managed to scramble back onto the boat and threw a square flotation device to the Dublin man.
But the winds were strong and Mr Curran was separated from the boat.
His fellow sailors soon lost sight of him in poor visibility.
The flotation device was later recovered, but there has been no sign of Mr Curran.
Small boats scoured the area near Larchmount on Sunday night, and a helicopter from Atlantic City joined the search on Monday, along with the New Rochelle Marine Unit.
In all, 12 searches were conducted over a 21-hour period covering a 101-square nautical mile area, but the search has now been suspended pending further developments.
Local law enforcement agencies are continuing to monitor water nearer the shore.
Curran, a senior software engineer with Google, is understood to have moved to New York recently.
He graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a first class (Gold Medal) honors BA in Mathematics, after winning a Foundation Scholarship.
He completed a masters, before becoming involved in some high profile IT projects in Ireland over the past decade including designing and developing a free web texting service for Vodafone, and ticketing software for the Dublin International Film Festival, and Dublin Fringe Theatre Festival.
A roommate told the New York Daily News that he met him in Ireland a few years ago.
“I moved here to New York and he wanted to come to America,” said Marcal Garolera, 26, “He’s the nicest person I’ve ever known”
“That lesson was his first time. He was having some fun and relaxing.”
The New York Sailing School in New Rochelle has been running sailing classes and renting boats for 32 years.
It's owner said this was "the worst nightmare" and "one of the biggest tragedies in all these years".
The instructor has been described as an experienced and licensed sailor.
He had been giving lessons at the school since the 1970s.
The weather was calm and sunny when the sailboat left Echo Bay on Sunday, but the storm came up fast and fierce.
Winds of up to 70mph knocked the vessel on its side.
Coastguard officials reported getting nine Mayday calls, and reports of many other boats in distress.
They said rain was so heavy at the time that visibility was at zero.
Police have taken the vessel for inspection, but say it had all the required life-jackets on board.
However, while the law requires that the boat carry lifejackets for everyone on board, it does not require passengers to wear them.
The school's policy was that under 15s must wear them, but it was up to the instructor to decide if he wanted to require adults to put them on.
New Rochelle Police Harbor Unit Sgt. Raul Rodriguez appealed to other sailors to wear lifejackets.
“Yes, absolutely should be wearing your life preservers. When you see something like that coming in the sky, definitely put ‘em on as soon as possible. This could’ve been avoided, definitely,” he said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Consulate in New York are providing assistance to Mr Curran’s family.
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