Three calls for the Whitstable RNLI lifeboat
The Whitstable Atlantic 85 lifeboat Lewisco has been launched 'on service' three times in the last week.
On Wednesday 23rd October Lewisco was launched at 2.32pm to assist a yacht aground off Shellness, Isle of Sheppey.
The lifeboat arrived at the scene to find a 23-foot yacht with one person onboard aground on the north side of the Columbine Bank in the entrance to the Swale.
A lifeboat crewmember was put aboard the vessel and a tow line attached. The craft was then towed into deeper water and then to a mooring in Whitstable Harbour.
The vessel had been on passage from Chatham to Southampton when it ran out of fuel.
The crew located the dinghy and its occupants who were brought onboard the lifeboat along with their dinghy and landed ashore at Hollowshore in Oare Creek.
The two men had been attempting to reach the shore from a yacht moored off Harty Ferry when they got into difficulties. Weather conditions at the time were south westerly force 4 winds, slight seas and good visibility.
The following day, Saturday 26th the lifeboat was launched at 2.55pm to assist a 16-foot angling boat broken down 200-yards off Bishopstone, Herne Bay. In rain and westerly 5-6 winds the craft and its two occupants were taken under tow for Herne Bay harbour where the Herne Bay Coastguard Rescue team assisted in landing the vessel and occupants ashore.
The Whitstable volunteer lifeboat crews have now answered 43 calls so fat this year.
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 Miss 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
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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Contacting the RNLI - public enquiries
Members of the public may contact the RNLI on 0300 300 9990 (UK) or 1800 991802 (Ireland) or by email.