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Busy end of week for Whitstable RNLI

Lifeboats News Release

Thursday afternoon saw the Whitstable RNLI lifeboat launch on service to two consecutive incidents.

The Whitstable Atlantic 85 Lifeboat Lewisco heads for Herne Bay on Thursday evening. Picture: Chris Davey/RNLI Whitstable.

RNLI/Chris Davey

The Whitstable Atlantic 85 Lifeboat Lewisco heads for Herne Bay on Thursday evening. Picture: Chris Davey/RNLI Whitstable.
Launching at 6.26pm the Atlantic 85 lifeboat Lewisco was initially tasked to a report of a number of adult males onboard a dinghy and struggling to reach the shore between the beach and the old Herne Bay pier head.

The lifeboat crew located the casualty craft an 8-foot inflatable dinghy and the four occupants were brought onboard the lifeboat and landed ashore near to the Neptune Jetty where they were met by the Herne Bay Coastguard Rescue Team.

Following this incident whilst returning to station the lifeboat was diverted to locate and report on the situation of a 31-foot angling vessel that had suffered engine failure possibly in the vicinity of the Kentish Flats Wind Farm.

At 7.07pm the lifeboat crew located the craft 4-miles North East of Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey and ‘stood by’ the vessel whilst awaiting the Sheerness all weather lifeboat to arrive and take the craft under tow to Queenborough.

On Friday afternoon the lifeboat was launched to a report of a broken down angling dinghy off Herne Bay.

The lifeboat crew located the casualty craft with two males onboard a 1/4-mile North East of the old pier head their craft having suffered a battery problem and towed the craft ashore to the Neptune Slipway, Herne Bay.

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


The broken down angling boat off Warden Point on Thursday evening.

:Ollie Myhill/ RNLI Whitstable.

The broken down angling boat off Warden Point on Thursday evening.
The angling dinghy is towed ashore by the Whitstable Atlantic 85 Lifeboat Lewisco on Friday evening.

:Ollie Myhill/ RNLI Whitstable.

The angling dinghy is towed ashore by the Whitstable Atlantic 85 Lifeboat Lewisco on Friday evening.
The Whitstable Atlantic 85 Lifeboat Lewisco his hauled back to the boathouse on Friday evening.

RNLI/Chris Davey

The Whitstable Atlantic 85 Lifeboat Lewisco his hauled back to the boathouse on Friday evening.

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.

Learn more about the RNLI

For more information please visit the RNLI website or Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. News releases, videos and photos are available on the News Centre.

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.

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