Warm praise for Cowes Lifeboat Station's response to many call-outs
The unusually high number of call-outs involving Cowes RNLI lifeboat over an 11-day period brought praise for the station’s all-volunteer members from their Lifeboat Operations Manager, Mark Southwell
19 June 2017
From Thursday 8th June to Sunday 18th June there were no fewer than nine ‘shouts’, with each one attracting sufficient lifeboat crew, shore-crew and a launch authority member to fully respond to the perceived emergency.
“The consistency throughout was quite outstanding, considering our volunteers also have a life outside of the RNLI including family and work commitments,” said Mark. “Although, fortunately, not one of the call-outs involved an injury or a fatality, there were several where the outcome could have been very different without our attendance.”
The ‘shouts’ included a yacht aground on the Bramble Bank, several men in difficulty in the River Medina, engine failure involving yachts, a RIB, and a fishing boat, a capsized windsurfer, a sinking motorboat in Wootton Creek, and a drifting unattended RIB. And several of the call-outs were late at night or in the early hours of the morning.
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The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
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