Selsey Lifeboat Station

Selsey Lifeboat Station - Launches

23rd July 2016

Selsey Inshore Lifeboat Tows Angling Boat to Safety

Selsey RNLI crew were paged by UK Coastguards on Saturday 23rd July. They requested that the inshore Lifeboat (ILB) launch to assist Selsey Coastguards and Sussex police in a search for a vulnerable person last seen near the water's edge to the west of Selsey.

The ILB launched at 1.31 pm with a crew of four volunteers (one more than normal for extra eyes for searching) however, just after launching, the person was found. The Coastguard immediately re-tasked the ILB to another incident. A 15-foot angling boat had reported by mobile phone that they had machinery failure and they believed that their position was 1.5-2 miles off Pagham Harbour entrance.

The weather on scene was wind SW force 3-4 sea state slight in sunshine with occasional sea fog. The 'Betty and Thomas Moore' headed to the given position but couldn't locate the casualty. The casualty vessel said that they could see the ILB and, after further interrogation by the Coastguards, the boat was eventually found 0.5 miles off of Park Lane, Selsey at 2.11 p.m.

The two male occupants were OK and a line was passed to them. The vessel was towed back to Selsey arriving at 2.32 p.m. Selsey Coastguard team met the ILB on arrival and the ILB was released and returned to station at 2.45 p.m., rehousing straight away.

CREW: Colin Pullenger (Helmsman), Gary Pearce, Andy Lee and Dan Langford.