reality TV show
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
which was meant to have been broadcast over eight weeks starting on 3 June 2003. Disaster struck however two weeks into the broadcast when, on Friday 13 June 2003, the ship ran aground off
County Donegal
County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...
.
''Cabin Fever'' consisted of a group of eleven contestants chosen specially for the show, most of whom had no sailing experience (though they had received a quick course in sailing technique prior to setting sail), who were to be put on the 27.4 metre (90 foot), two-masted schooner with a professional crew of two. The wind-powered sailing ship would then sail around the Irish coast. Each week one contestant was scheduled to quite literally " walk the plank" after being voted off the ship by TV viewers. The final surviving contestant was to be considered the winner and would receive €100,000.
The show was named after ''
cabin fever
Cabin fever is the distressing claustrophobic irritability or restlessness experienced when a person, or group, is stuck at an isolated location or in confined quarters for an extended time. A person may be referred to as stir-crazy, derived from ...
'', the
claustrophobic
Claustrophobia is the fear of confined spaces. It can be triggered by many situations or stimuli, including elevators, especially when crowded to capacity, windowless rooms, and hotel rooms with closed doors and sealed windows. Even bedrooms with ...
reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period.
The ships
''The Cabin Fever'' was built in 1947 in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. It was heavily refurbished for the programme.
''The Cabin Fever II'' was brought from Dartmouth. It was registered as the '' Johanna Lucretia''.
The contestants
The contestants — six men and five women — were selected from among 6,724 applicants.
Placings:
#Elaine Power (30), Dunmore East, County Waterford
#Cat Sheridan (26),
Midleton
Midleton (; , meaning "monastery at the weir") is a town in south-eastern County Cork, Ireland. It lies approximately 16 km east of Cork City on the Owenacurra River and the N25 road, which connects Cork to the port of Rosslare. A satellit ...
Rathfarnham
Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Counci ...
#Andrew Fowler (27),
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
#Marie Walsh (45),
Castleisland
Castleisland () is a town and commercial centre in County Kerry in south west Ireland. The town is known for the width of its main street. As of the 2016 Census, Castleisland had a population of 2,486.
Castleisland was described by one of its ...
Letterkenny
Letterkenny ( ga, Leitir Ceanainn , meaning 'hillside of the O'Cannons'), nicknamed 'the Cathedral Town', is the largest and most populous town in County Donegal, a county in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. Letterkenny lies on the R ...
Limerick
Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...
#Nuala Carey (36),
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
County Donegal
County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...
. All the 9 remaining contestants1 and two crew were rescued by the nearby
Arranmore
''Árainn Mhór'' (English name: Arranmore) is an island off the west coast of County Donegal, Ireland. Arranmore is the largest inhabited island of County Donegal, with a population of 469 in 2016, but has had a gradually falling native popula ...
Lifeboat, but the wooden sailing ship broke up on the rocks. Ironically the accident was not filmed by the RTÉ film crew; they had left the ship some hours earlier to catch some sleep after 15 hours continuous filming. The incident was however filmed by a local man who happened to have been recording the schooner's movements at the moment she ran aground. The Irish media made much tongue-in-cheek mention of the fact that the disaster occurred on Friday the 13th, a date often linked to supposed curses and disasters and also the fact that the ship's name had been changed for the programme: sailing lore suggests that any ship which is renamed prior to setting sail will meet with disaster.
Stuart Switzer, a Coco Television Productions producer responsible for the programme said:
“The back of the boat has broken. It is actually in two pieces, and the waves are knocking the planks and timber around. There is debris all over the water and all over the shore.”
Aftermath
RTÉ and the programme makers, Coco TV, announced that all money earned from phone-in votes in the previous week (and which, due to the disaster, would not now lead to some contestant leaving the ship on 16 June as planned), would be donated to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which supplies lifeboat coverage around the Irish coast.
RTÉ and Coco TV hired a second boat. The captain, Peter Culleton, was replaced and the show began again, though three of the original team declined to come back. They were replaced by two new contestants. The series was further hit when the boat experienced engine trouble and required a new
gearbox
Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...
but the problem was ultimately solved. Partly due to the controversies, the series regularly topped the TAM ratings on RTÉ.
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...
party, questioned "the wisdom of sending out 11 people with no sailing experience with just two qualified sailors." He said the destruction of the ship "shows that so-called reality television has gone too far, with people being asked to carry out challenges that are too dangerous."
Report
Almost two years later, in March 2005, a report on the ship's sinking was published by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board. The report stated that the schooner breached its operating licence and had no effective watchkeeping. It also found that the contestants were fatigued at the time of the accident.
Footnotes
1 One contestant of the original ten had already "walked the plank" the previous week.