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Rescues, Awards and Celebrations. – Appledore RNLI

Lifeboats News Release

June 2024 has been a month of rescues, awards and celebrations for Appledore RNLI

RNLI/Graham Hobbs

Appledore RNLI's Coxswain receives the Northam Town Council Community Champion Award

As part of the celebrations for RNLI 200, Appledore RNLI’s Sea Sunday event took place on Sunday 16 June with our all-weather lifeboat, Mollie Hunt, which is normally inaccessible to the public as it is deep water moored, being brought alongside the Quay with the crew showing visitors around. At the same time Glanely, our inshore lifeboat, was attending a PR event at the Bideford Water Festival. On the Quay was the RNLI Bideford Bay pop-up shop, the famous RNLI Appledore BBQ, and Appledore Band. The afternoon concluded with a service of thanksgiving rounded off by a surprise performance from the Appledore RNLI Crew performing a personalised Sea Shanty. During beautiful weather, the afternoon raised over £1000 to go towards the operational running costs of our lifeboats and crew training.

Plans are now well underway to celebrate our own Appledore RNLI 200. On 28 February 1825 Appledore received Boat No I of the first 12 lifeboats ever ordered by the RNLI, aptly named The Volunteer, which remained on service for the next 31 years. With the Appledore Bar reputed to be the second most dangerous Bar in the British Isles, and nowhere claiming to be more dangerous, this was a natural progression for Appledore whose men has been saving lives at sea for countless years previously, mainly through oarsman manning six to ten oar Pilot Gigs.

To all the crew’s delight on 13 June, after 45 years of dedicated volunteering, the last 20 of which have been as our Coxswain, Martin Cox was awarded the Northam Town Council’s Community Champion award in the first year that these have been presented. People of the Northam wards were asked to nominate those who they would like to see so honoured, people who have made an outstanding contribution to the community and enriched the lives of the residents of Northam, Westward Ho! or Appledore. To quote from part of his nomination: ‘There must be many around Northam, Westward Ho! and Appledore who have had their lives touched for the better by this man. Whether that is from an actual rescue, with residents here that quite literally owe their life to Martin, either directly, or via the skill and knowledge he has passed onto his fellow crew members, or through water safety and community work. I can honestly think of no-one better for this accolade. He embodies a local man delivering for his local community’.

On the evening of Tuesday 4 June, RNLI lifeboats from Bude, Appledore, Clovelly and Padstow lifeboat stations were tasked by HM Coastguard in response to reports of a person last seen in the water off Northcott Mouth, near Bude. Together with Coastguard Rescue Teams from Bude and Hartland, and Coastguard helicopters from Newquay and St Athan, the search went through the night and the following day. Our thoughts are with the loved ones of the missing casualty.

Other shouts, taking the number so far this year to 28, include a more local multi-agency incident and to a person cut off by the tide in Bideford near Little America.

The RNLI is a charity receiving no public funding and as such has been reliant for its 200 years of service, not only on its volunteer crew, but on fundraising, donations and legacies. Events run by our Fundraising Guild this summer include a ‘Tea at Tapeley’ on 20 August, the annual Clovelly to Appledore sponsored walk on 7 September, and a special bicentenary black tie dinner at the Barnstaple Hotel on 14 September. Details can be found on the RNLI Appledore Fundraising website: https://www.rnliappledore.org.uk.


RNLI/Appeldore RNLI

Appledore RNLI's Sea Sunday event raises over £1000 for the Charity

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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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.