Three calls for the Whitstable RNLI lifeboat

On Friday afternoon at 3.58pm the lifeboat was launched to assist a 30-foot motor cruiser with a fouled propeller off Harty Ferry in The Swale. The lifeboat arrived at the scene to find the casualty vessel had fouled a mooring from which it was subsequently released and then taken to a new anchorage.

The two occupants onboard stayed with their craft to await the arrival of a diver the following morning to free the propeller and the lifeboat returned to station.

At 5.18pm as the lifeboat was being recovered but still afloat the crew were tasked by the coastguard to an inflatable reported off Leysdown, Isle of Sheppey.

The lifeboat crew located the inflatable with three adult males onboard just over 1-mile offshore who told the crew they had paddled out to find deeper water in which to swim. They accepted a tow from the lifeboat and landed as close inshore as possible due to the low tide and were met by the Sheppey Coastguard Rescue Team The lifeboat then returned to station.

On Sunday the lifeboat was launched following a report of a drifting and partially submerged dinghy in the Oaze Deep channel to the north of the Red Sands Forts.

The lifeboat crew located the craft which was approximately 3.5-metres in length and showed no sign of recent occupation. Towing the craft was not an option and the vessel was too heavy to attempt to drain and pull onboard the lifeboat. Whilst alongside the dinghy sank out of sight and the lifeboat returned to station.

There have now been 29 calls on the Whitstable lifeboat so far 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: (07785) 296252 [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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