The jury in the trial of three men charged in connection with the biggest cocaine seizure in the history of the State has been told that some 'idiot' put diesel instead of petrol into powerful engines on the rigid inflatable boat that was found at the scene of the haul.
The trial heard extensive evidence in relation to the semi-submerged boat that was found in Dunlough Bay in west Cork on 2 July last year.
Cross-examining the prosecution expert who examined the boat, defence senior counsel, Blaise O'Carroll said: 'Some idiot put diesel into it when he should have put petrol in it and the engine lost its power and ended up on rocks.
Paddy O'Connor, recently retired from the Irish Naval Service and an expert in RIBs, agreed with Mr O'Carroll's proposition.
Also during his evidence Mr O'Connor compared the replacement of the boat's original single engine with two powerful 200-horsepower engines with the actions of a boy racer.
Three deny charges
Three men, Perry Wharrie, 48, from Essex, Joseph Daly, 41 from Kent, and Martin Wanden, 45, of no fixed abode, all deny the charges of possessing cocaine, possessing it with intent to sell or supply, and having it for sale or supply on 2 July at Dunlough Bay in Co Cork.
The first evidence heard yesterday in relation to the RIB was from Colm Harrington who was asked by Customs and Excise to salvage the semi-submerged boat in Dunlough Bay last July.
Mr Harrington, who operates a salvage company, towed the craft to Castletownbere as the waters at Dunlough Bay were so choppy that it was not possible to salvage it there.
The witness said that a crane was used to lift the 7.8m RIB out of the water in Castletownbere and put it onto the back of a truck on the morning of 3 July.
Mr Harrington told Paddy O'Sullivan, senior Customs and Excise Officer, that he had seen the particular RIB before.
The witness had been in England in mid-June last year at the Sea Works Exhibition and on his way back he said he saw the particular RIB in the car park of the Pembroke car ferry.
Mr Harrington said he thought it was unusual to see such big engines on it, saying 'this fella must be in an awful hurry with such big engines'.
He also said that he observed that the vehicle towing the RIB and trailer was what he described as a hippy-type van, which he thought was unusual as he would have expected a fancy kind of jeep to be pulling a craft like that.
Mr Harrington also said he would have expected the owner of the van to come out to him when he was looking at the boat as he said people would normally do so when they would see someone taking an interest in their boat.
Paddy O'Connor said that when he inspected the RIB at the back of Bandon garda station he saw an identification plate from a South African manufacturer.
He said that from the back right to the front on the right-hand side there were 26 perforations of the hull and flotation/buoyancy chambers.
Floatation chambers compromised
Mr O'Connor said that some of the holes were large enough to put one's fist through and that the floatation chambers were totally compromised on one side but partly functioning on the other side, resulting in the boat being semi-submerged.
He took note of rock-rash to the hull of the boat, the term used to describe rock damage to a craft.
The expert found during his survey that several seats had been unscrewed from the boat.
He said there was evidence that they had been unscrewed rather than torn out in the course of the damage at sea.
Mr O'Connor said that he noted that the engines were particularly big for the craft. He said that they were excessively powerful for the craft both in weight and horsepower.
Asked what he thought happened on July 2 2007 with the RIB, Mr O'Connor said, that the fuel was contaminated with diesel which rendered the boat incapable of going anywhere and it ended up on the rocks.
