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'It's like being in a spaceship': Launching into the future
Seahouses RNLI are one of the first of 20 stations to receive the new INEOS Grenadier launching vehicles. Get behind the wheel with Head Launcher Lee Littlewood as he guides us through this new addition to their station.
Who are you, and how do you volunteer for the RNLI?
I’m Lee Littlewood and I volunteer at Seahouses RNLI. I moved here 6 years ago, and joining the lifeboat station was a way of integrating into village life. I've been volunteering with the RNLI for about 3½ years now. I drive the Shannon Launch and Recovery System (SLARS) and I'm a head launcher for both the all-weather lifeboat and the inshore lifeboat.
There are always opportunities to progress at Seahouses because our village has quite a small catchment area. It's very rare that somebody is just on shore crew or only does one role on the boat. Generally, everybody has a couple of roles they can do!
What kind of shouts do you get at Seahouses?
We get a unique type of shout at Seahouses, being so close to Holy Island. It’s an island a mile off the mainland in the North Sea, accessible by a causeway, and cut off twice a day by fast, incoming tides.
You usually have a fair idea what you're going to find before you get there on shouts: people are either standing ankle-deep in water, sitting on top of their car, or waiting in the refuge hut.
This year has been quieter on the causeway than in previous years. There's been a lot of work from the RNLI water safety teams and Coastguard teams to make people more aware of the risks.
These days, we’re getting more paddleboarders being swept offshore. When there’s a light offshore wind, people don't always realise how quickly it can carry them out.
A couple of weeks ago, we had two shouts in the same afternoon. First, we were called to a kayaker who'd been swept offshore and then, a couple of hours later, we launched to a paddleboarder.Can you tell us about the new INEOS vehicle you’ve received at the station?
As part of a 5-year partnership, INEOS Automotive is providing 20 Grenadier station wagons to the RNLI, to help volunteers position, launch and recover our D class lifeboats. The Grenadiers play a crucial role at locations where a robust, dependable vehicle is required to launch lifeboats straight from the beach, often traversing very soft or unstable ground and shallow water. We are one of the first stations to receive the new vehicles alongside Flint, Morecambe and Lytham.
At Seahouses, we can launch directly into the harbour outside the station, or else take a trip up the road to launch at the beach – especially if we’re going to Holy Island. It’s been great to have a new vehicle, especially for the longer journeys when we’re launching further afield.
What was it like training to use it?
Andy Williams, our Fleet Operational Support Lead, brought the vehicle up from Poole and spent a few days here doing training with the drivers. When Andy came back to do the pass-outs, I spent a couple of hours with him beforehand, getting used to the vehicle. Driving is driving! Other than going from manual gears to automatic, and I'd driven automatics before, it wasn't a major issue.
The biggest difference was familiarisation. It's like getting into the cockpit of a plane compared with our old launching vehicle. When you get into the INEOS, there's a lot of technology and controls.
It's new, modern technology. The winch setup is different, and the sand anchor is an updated version, so those things took a bit of getting used to. But the basic principles are the same once you understand the quirks of the new vehicle.
What’s great about it?
The biggest benefit of the INEOS is the confidence that comes with having a modern, reliable vehicle.
It doesn't necessarily get us there any quicker, because we're still governed by road speed limits. What it does provide is a far more comfortable and capable platform for the job.
If you're heading up to Holy Island by road, it's a much nicer journey than it was in the old launch vehicle. It's comfortable, modern and pleasant to drive.
From the outside, it still looks quite similar to the vehicle it replaced. The biggest difference is when you get inside. It's like being in a spaceship.
There are a lot more creature comforts: electric windows, air conditioning, a radio and all the things we now take for granted. The old vehicle didn't have any of those. Those additions simply make it a much nicer and more comfortable environment to work in while doing the job.
Can you tell us about a shout where you’ve used the INEOS to launch?
In May, we had a shout to a family on a broken-down boat. I was head launcher that day and Tam Malcolm was the driver.
I happened to be quite close to the station when the pager went off, so I was one of the first people there. As head launcher and driver, your role is to prepare the vehicle and get everything ready while the boat crew are getting themselves prepared.
We launched within about 10 minutes of the initial page. As a launch authority, I get a bit of an early warning because I hear the tasking request, so I can sometimes get a couple of minutes' head start on the rest of the crew.
The crew launched and headed up to Holy Island, which is about 15 minutes from here. Fortunately, the family were all wearing lifejackets – so while they needed our help quickly, it was great to see they’d taken the right precautions for the day. Then, on the way back, they helped another small boat near Bamburgh, which they brought back into harbour.
Although it might seem like a straightforward shout on paper, it ended up involving two separate incidents and was a busy day for the crew!
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