Thanks to George for sharing news of this screening on ITV tonight (Monday). Ed
The Inshore Lifeboat Centre (ILC), East Cowes will be featured in a television programme this evening and two of the people featured have connections with Cowes Lifeboat Station.
As well as working for the Inshore Lifeboat Centre at Cowes, Scott Armiger (who has a starring role in the programme) is a volunteer helm with Cowes lifeboat, and Gary Payne was formerly with the lifeboat.
Countrywise
The programme is Countrywise which will be aired tonight on ITV at 8pm. The presenter, Paul Heiney, visited the ILC in June this year.
The ILC staff gave him a very warm welcome and he was taken on a tour of the facility.
The team
Paul met a number of staff, including:
Scott Armiger:
- Works at the ILC
- Volunteer helm at Cowes lifeboat station
- Boat builder and took Paul afloat
Gary Payne
- Worked at the ILC for 20 years
- Used to be volunteer crew at Cowes lifeboat station
John Urry and Richard Plumley
- Testing crew/helms
- Carried out safety briefs for going afloat and planned the exercises
Dawn
- Solutionist
- Demonstrated handle gluing onto a D class
Glyn Ellis
- ILC operations manager
- Briefed Paul on the operational side of the facility
Watching full production line
On site there were about 30 lifeboats, including refits and new builds of Atlantic 75s, 85s and D class inflatables.
The presenter followed the production line and saw the boats being built, fitted out and tested.
Getting stuck in
Paul Heiney tries out gluing a handle onto a D class. The team then craned the Atlantic 85 ILB, Tabby Cat, into the water outside the ILC.
Accompanied by a safety boat and fully kitted up, Paul Heiney took his seat in the Atlantic 85 and left the marina travelling out into the Solent to take the boat for a sea trial.
The boat was put through its paces, checking that all the equipment on board was operational, that the engines were operating correctly, steering and handling tests as well as a speed trial to assess the boat’s ability to cope at 35 knots.
The presenter also went overboard in a demonstration of lifeboat crew training.
Tune into ITV at 8pm tonight (Monday).
