A roundup of RNLI action over the last week. Ed
Members of Cowes lifeboat went quite overboard when it came to playing their part in promoting the fact that the RNLI was the official charity of this year’s Cowes Week regatta.
Supplementing the on-shore PR efforts of visiting RNLI personnel, led by Poole-based chief executive Paul Boissier, the local members took part in a rescue demonstration, organised games, participated in a cookery demonstration, and gave radio and television interviews.
“Both crew and on-shore members did really well,” said lifeboat operations manager Mark Southwell.
Racing to dress
One particularly popular activity involved yachtsmen paying a pound a go to compete with others in donning the entire lifeboat kit, complete with lifebuoy, in the quickest possible time. With crew-member Richard O’Callaghan and his wife, Helen, officiating, it was one of the events staged on the Monday evening of Cowes Week at Shepards Wharf.
Earlier that evening the Cowes Atlantic 85 ‘Tabby Cat’, with Simon Hawkins at the helm, joined Calshot lifeboat and the Lee-on-Solent rescue helicopter for a rescue demonstration off Princes Green, in which Cowes crew-member Steve Price was briefly winched into the helicopter.
Media coverage
Radio and television interviews were not only given by Mark but also his son, Robbie, who plans to raise sponsorship money by running from Cowes to Yarmouth, sailing from Yarmouth to Bembridge, and then cycle back to Cowes. His Dad’s radio interviews included one with Radio Bahrein, mainly in Cowes to cover Extreme 40 multi-hulls which are due to race for the first time in Bahrein.
Meanwhile at Cowes Yacht Haven during the Week crew-member Kirsty Walker had her moment of fame on a Spanish television programme when she joined two other people to fill baguettes with Spanish-style food, for on-the-water delivery to various sailors.
Great business for the RNLI shop
The RNLI shop, opened this summer, did brisk business, and Alan Armes who runs a fast food shop on Shooters Hill pledged to give one pound to the charity for each burger he sold during the regatta.
Cowes RNLI members were well represented at the ‘yachtsmen’s service’ on the Sunday of the regatta, at Trinity Church, and several were in attendance when guests were invited to view the old Custom House and inspect plans to convert the harbour-side building into the new lifeboat station.
Every day of the regatta, except the final Saturday, the lifeboat was off its air berth and fully manned.
And it continues
Although Cowes Week ended last Saturday (7th August), Cowes lifeboat’s continued to be on call for emergency call-outs as it is throughout the year. And the first post-regatta ‘shout’ came on the Sunday when the lifeboat raced to the aid of Lady Fi, a 20 foot Shetland fishing boat with two men on board. The Calshot-based boat, had engine failure off Gurnard Ledge, and was towed to Shepards Wharf.
This brought the number of ‘shouts’ attended by the lifeboat in 2010 to 28, of which six were during Cowes Week.
