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Whitstable Lifeboat assists Motor Cruiser

Lifeboats News Release

Whitstable's Atlantic 85 Lifeboat Lewisco was launched at 5.44pm on Saturday to assist a 7-metre Bayliner motor cruiser with a chain wrapped around it’s propeller in the entrance to Conyer Creek in The Swale.

Lifeboat crewmember Ben Croswell begins the task of freeing the anchor chain from around the drive shaft and propeller of a Bayliner motor cruiser off the entrance to Conyer Creek in TheSwale on Saturday evening. Picture: Dave Parry/RNLI Whitstable.

RNLI/Dave Parry.

Lifeboat crewmember Ben Croswell begins the task of freeing the anchor chain from around the drive shaft and propeller of a Bayliner motor cruiser off the entrance to Conyer Creek in TheSwale on Saturday evening. Picture: Dave Parry/RNLI Whitstable.

As the tide was falling the anchor and most of the chain were hauled onboard the casualty vessel and the craft towed alongside the lifeboat to a mooring.

The lifeboat crew managed to free the propeller with three of them and the two occupants of the motor cruiser all moving to the bow in order to trim the craft so the propeller drive shaft came sufficiently clear of the water for the fourth member of the lifeboat crew to free the chain from the drive shaft. The occupants of the cruiser were then able to start the craft’s engine and test the drive shaft.

Due to the state of the tide, the two occupants of the vessel and their two dogs were advised to wait until daylight and the tide before making their return passage to Chatham. The lifeboat then returned to station.

Notes to editors

Whitstable RNLI Lifeboat Station was established in 1963 by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and is one of 237 lifeboat stations around the shores of the UK and Ireland. The volunteer crews provide a maritime search and rescue service for the Kent coast. They cover the area between the Kingsferry Bridge on the Swale, in the west, around the south-eastern side of Sheppey and along the coast through Whitstable and Herne Bay to Reculver in the east and outwards into the Thames Estuary.

The station is equipped with an Atlantic 85 lifeboat named Lewisco, purchased through a bequest of a Mrs Lewis of London who passed away in 2006.

She is what is known as a rigid inflatable inshore lifeboat, the boat’s rigid hull being topped by an inflatable sponson. She carries a crew of four people.


RNLI media contacts

· Chris Davey, Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer, Whitstable Lifeboat Station.
07741 012004/ [email protected]

· Paul Dunt RNLI Press Officer London/southeast/east Tel: 0207 6207416 Mob: (07786) 668825[email protected]

For enquiries outside normal business hours, contact the RNLI duty press officer on 01202 336789






Lewisco, Whitstable's Atlantic 85 Lifeboat.

RNLI/Chris Davey

Lewisco, Whitstable's Atlantic 85 Lifeboat.

Key facts about the RNLI

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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