Selsey Lifeboat Station - Launches
19th July 2016
Selsey Lifeboat Gets Early Call for Help
.jpg "Sports Boat") |
.jpg "Sports Boat") |
.jpg "Sports Boat") |
.jpg "Sports Boat") |
The Selsey RNLI volunteer crew had an early alarm call when the pagers went off at 5.16 a.m. on Tuesday 19th July. The UK Coastguard requested that the All-Weather Lifeboat launch to conduct a search for a 20-foot sports boat with four male occupants.
The coastguards had received a mobile phone call from the vessel stating thaqt they had run out of fuel but could not give a reliable position, only that they thought they were 2 miles off of the coast and could see Selsey Bill and Bognor Regis.
After searching between Selsey and Bognor two possible targets were approached and quickly discounted. At 6.05 a.m. the Lifeboat Mechanic called their mobile and asked if they had an app to give them a GPS position on any of their phones and, at 6.12 a.m., a screen shot of their position was sent back to the Mechanic.
This showed their position as 5 miles south-east of Selsey and also that the mobile had 7 minutes of battery left. Once alongside the vessel it was discovered they had left Littlehampton Harbour at 6.00 p.m. on Monday evening. The vessel had no VHF radio, flares, lifejackets nor warm clothing. The weather on scene was wind south easterly force 3, sea state slight in bright sunshine.
After checking that all was well with the four men aboard the boat they were given survivors' lifejackets to wear. A line was passed to the vessel and a tow established between them and the Lifeboat. A course was set for Littlehampton Harbour with an ETA of 7.30 a.m. Littlehampton Lifeboat was requested to rendezvous with the Selsey Lifeboat to take over the tow as there was insufficient water at the entrance of the harbour for the All-Weather Lifeboat.
'Voluntary Worker' was released to return to station at 7.35 a.m. and arrived back at 8.00 a.m., rehousing straight away.
CREW: Geoff Mellett (Coxswain), Will Moir (Acting 2nd Coxswain), Phil Pitham (Mechanic), Andy Lee, and trainees Kristina Dolan, Pip Skeet and Harry Emmence.