Eastbourne RNLI - The Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Fitting send-off for lifeboat supporter

Published on May 17, 2013

The funeral of Daphne Lake, a long term supporter and fundraiser for Eastbourne lifeboats was briefly interrupted this morning when the crew were paged to an incident off Sovereign Harbour

A packed house had gathered at St Richard’s Church Langney to pay their tributes to the life of a popular long term supporter of Eastbourne lifeboats when suddenly the crew pagers interrupted proceedings. The on duty volunteer lifeboat crew were forced to abruptly rush to the assistance of a crewman aboard Eastbourne’s largest commercial fishing boat who had suffered a severe allergic reaction.

The skipper of the Royal Sovereign became very concerned when one of his crew became seriously ill and contacted Dover Coastguard for immediate assistance. Eastbourne’s all-weather lifeboat was scrambled and was quickly on scene with the station’s medical advisor Dr. Stephen Lytton and crewman paramedic Guy Emery on board. The two were transferred to the Royal Sovereign to administer medical treatment to the casualty. With the casualty stabilised he was transferred to the ALB and transported back to Sovereign Harbour where he was passed into the care of a waiting ambulance crew who took him to Eastbourne District General Hospital.

Later, friends of Daphne said she would have been delighted with the drama at Church which would have made her day.

Eastbourne lifeboat helps racing yacht

Published on May 16, 2013

Eastbourne RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat was launched on Wednesday evening to assist one of the local racing yachts which had become disabled when a stray rope fouled the propeller.

The new evening race series got off to an unsuccessful start for one of the crews last night when a stray spinnaker halyard became entangled around the yachts rudder and propeller whilst the crew were manoeuvring at the start of the race. With restricted steerage and too close inshore to take any risk, the three people on board had no alternative but to call for assistance from Dover Coastguard. The volunteer crew of Eastbourne ALB were scrambled and were quickly on scene. The vessel was then taken under tow back to the marina locks.

Visiting Yacht falls foul of fishing gear off Eastbourne

Published on May 8, 2013

Eastbourne all-weather lifeboat (ALB) was tasked this morning to assist a visiting 34ft yacht which had became entangled in fishing gear very close to the entrance to Sovereign Harbour.

A flotilla of French sailors had spent the night in Sovereign Harbour before setting sail to cross the Channel to Fecamp in Northern France. Unfortunately for them, fishing gear had been placed very close to the harbour entrance which the visitors failed to notice whilst hauling their sails for their return passage. Stuck fast in the gear they sent out a ‘Pan-Pan’ distress call which was answered by Dover Coastguard. With another vessel from the French fleet acting as interpreter communication was established with Eastbourne ALB which was quickly on scene. Eventually the ALB managed to extradite the vessel from the entrapment. Having checked that steerage and engine facility had been restored the yacht was able to continue its passage.

Eastbourne RNLI Lifeboat medic retires

Published on May 7, 2013

Doctor Colin McKee has retired his position of Lifeboat Medical Adviser to Eastbourne lifeboats after 37 years loyal service spanning five generations of all-weather lifeboats

Doctor McKee first joined Eastbourne lifeboats in 1976 a few years after taking up his new medical practice in Hampden Park, and joined the crew of the slipway launched Watson class ‘Charles Dibdin’. Since then he has served on four different classes of lifeboat leading up to the current hi-tech Tamar class vessel ‘Diamond Jubilee’ and has received both silver and gold awards from the RNLI to mark his loyalty and dedication. He has been instrumental in creating dedicated medical exercises and first aid procedures for the RNLI which now forms the basis of all casualty care training for lifeboat crewmen throughout the UK and Ireland.

The older class boats did not have the crew comforts of modern lifeboats and Colin has many tales of cold wet nights when casualty vessels were towed to Newhaven before Sovereign Harbour was built, a journey which sometimes took as long as eight hours to complete. One thing Colin says he definitely will not miss is climbing a rope ladder in rolling seas to board a freighter in order to attend an injured crewman. One particularly harrowing experience back in the 1990’s was when the lifeboat was called to the Indian vessel ‘Vishva Parage’ to treat a sick crewman who was suffering from Malaria. The ship was running without cargo so she was sitting particularly high in the water, due to the shape of the hull the first few feet of ladder was swinging in mid air. Colin decided the casualty should be transferred to hospital via the lifeboat and was speechless for the first time in many years when the freighter lowered a gangplank for their crewman who casually walked down and stepped aboard the lifeboat, a facility that Colin noted with some dismay hadn’t been offered to him when he first boarded the vessel risking life and limb, to say nothing of his dignity!

Colin says his fondest memories will be of the fantastic crews he has served with over the years and looks forward to continuing his work for Eastbourne lifeboats in his role as Chairman of the Lifeboat Management Group.

Picture shows Dr McKee surrounded by some of the crew receiving his framed letter of thanks from the RNLI Chief Executive Paul Bossier presented at Sunday’s crew meeting by Paul Metcalfe, Operations Manager of Eastbourne lifeboats.