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Fleetwood RNLI joining campaign to mark equipment

Lifeboats News Release

When Lymington RNLI recently spent six hours at sea, searching for a missing kite surfer, who had already made it ashore, they looked to see how they could avoid such an occurrence happening again.

MCA

Labels produced by HM Coastguard

The search was the result of the kite surfer seen to be in apparent difficulties by a member of the public. After searching for six hours, the kite surfer’s equipment was found ashore, but without any form of identification, it was unknown if the kite surfer was safe.

The local Coastguard circulated a photo of the equipment on social media and it was established the kite surfer was safe.

As a result of the call-out, Lymington RNLI started a campaign, Label your Kit, to encourage people who use the sea for both recreational and business reasons, to mark their equipment with a contact number, so should it be found, it may be possible to avoid a fruitless search.

Fleetwood Coastguard are supporting the campaign and local Coastguard, Mark Sumner said ‘This is an excellent idea and there are labels that can be attached to equipment with the person’s contact details available through the MCA website, in the Recreation and Water Sport section.’

Tony Cowell, Coxswain at Fleetwood RNLI said ‘This is a brilliant idea by our colleagues at Lymington RNLI and we encourage all sea users to mark any equipment they have with mobile number,on labels or even with a black marker pen. This could save the RNLI from unnecessary and potentially dangerous call-outs.’

Labels can be sourced from : http://mca.ecgroup.net/Publications/Recreationandwatersport%C2%A0/Recreationandwatersport%C2%A0.aspx

You can watch Lymington RNLI’s excellent video ‘Pass the pen’ here ;

https://www.facebook.com/LymingtonLifeboat/videos/247302150400629

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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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