K Mar K: Alone, on Autopilot

What Happened

On 25 September 2025, the skipper of K Mar K put to sea alone from Killybegs, Co. Donegal, for a day of pot fishing. He worked six strings of pots without incident. While retrieving and relocating the seventh, with the vessel underway and on autopilot, he fell overboard.

The vessel continued on autopilot, unmanned, until it ran aground. It was found west of Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo, engine running, still in gear, with nobody aboard. The alarm was only raised once the grounded, empty vessel was discovered. A search recovered the skipper's body two days later, on 27 September, roughly 1.5 nautical miles from the last known fishing position.

What This Interim Report Can and Can't Tell Us

MAIU is explicit: "the exact circumstances of the incident cannot be determined with certainty," and this interim report draws no conclusions. There's no finding yet on why the fall happened, what safety equipment was or wasn't in use, or what might have changed the outcome. What the confirmed facts do establish, starkly, is the structural risk of solo working itself: nobody else was aboard to notice, raise the alarm, or turn the vessel back. The gap between the fall and the alarm being raised was the entire remaining length of an unmanned voyage.

The General Lesson, Regardless of This Case's Specific Cause

Solo fishing is common, legal, and often unavoidable for smaller operations — but it removes the single most basic safety mechanism most vessels rely on: a second person noticing something's wrong. Three widely-recommended, low-cost mitigations exist specifically for this gap, independent of whatever MAIU's full investigation eventually finds caused this fall:

1. A kill cord or deadman's switch, worn on the person and connected to the engine controls, so the vessel stops (rather than continuing unmanned) if the operator is separated from the helm.
2. A PFD with an integrated personal locator beacon or AIS MOB unit, so a fall overboard triggers an alert independent of anyone else noticing.
3. A shore-based check-in schedule with a specific, monitored escalation point — someone ashore who knows exactly when to raise the alarm if contact is missed.

Recommended Actions

1. If you fish single-handed, fit and actually wear a kill cord connected to the engine — not just stowed for when conditions "look risky."
2. Consider a PFD with an integrated MOB alert or PLB for any single-handed operation, regardless of vessel size.
3. Set up a monitored check-in arrangement ashore before every solo trip, with a clear, specific point at which someone raises the alarm if you don't check in.

Test Your Knowledge

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Related Reading

• Ben Thomas: Six Failures, One Loss of Life