Whitstable RNLI assist Motor Cruiser

Launching at 4.14pm the lifeboat crew located the casualty vessel and it’s two occupants at anchor 1-mile North of Long Rock, Swalecliffe.

Helm Dave Parry said “We put a lifeboat crewmember onboard the vessel equipped with a salvage pump and he managed to clear most of the water. It was subsequently established that the water was emanating from a leak in a joint between the turbo and exhaust and was occurring only when the craft’s engine was running”.

“The 9-metre motor cruiser had been on passage from Hoo Marina to Dover and as the low tide did not permit bringing the craft to Whitstable it was decided that the lifeboat would escort the vessel towards Ramsgate with a lifeboat crewmember onboard to monitor the ingress of water”.

“We therefore continued with the motor cruiser as far as Reculver where the occupants reported they could deal with the water level themselves and where happy continue to Ramsgate without the lifeboat”.

“The lifeboat crewmember came back onboard the lifeboat we then returned to station”.

Weather conditions at the time were South Westerly force 3 winds, sunny and good visibility.

RNLI Media Contacts

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]

• Julie Rainey- Regional Communications Lead : 07827 358256

• Sam Haddad | Regional Communications Manager South East (job share) [email protected] Tel: 1202 137713 

For enquiries outside normal business hours, contact the RNLI duty press officer on 01202 336789

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