Whitstable Lifeboat assists Yacht

Lifeboats News Release

Whitstable's Atlantic 85 Lifeboat Lewisco was launched at 3.19pm on Saturday to assist a yacht in difficulties in the Swale to the east of Conyer Creek.

The 33-foot sloop Avalon which required assistance from the Whitstable Lifeboat on Saturday afternoon.

Tim Smith/RNLI Whitstable

The 33-foot sloop Avalon which required assistance from the Whitstable Lifeboat on Saturday afternoon. Picture: Tim Smith/RNLI Whitstable.

The lifeboat crew located the casualty vessel a 33-foot sloop at anchor having suffered failure of it's starter motor. A lifeboat crewmember went onboard to assist and the craft was taken under tow to a nearby mooring.

The two occupants of the yacht which had been on passage from Queenborough to Conyer remained onboard overnight to await a tow into Conyer Creek the following morning.

The lifeboat then returned to station. This was the 5th call of the year for Whitstable's volunteer lifeboat crews.

Notes to editors:

Whitstable RNLI Lifeboat Station was established in 1963 by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and is one of 237 lifeboat stations around the shores of the UK and Ireland. The volunteer crews provide a maritime search and rescue service for the Kent coast. They cover the area between the Kingsferry Bridge on the Swale, in the west, around the south-eastern side of Sheppey and along the coast through Whitstable and Herne Bay to Reculver in the east and outwards into the Thames Estuary.

The station is equipped with an Atlantic 85 lifeboat named Lewisco, purchased through a bequest of a Mrs Lewis of London who passed away in 2006.

She is what is known as a rigid inflatable inshore lifeboat, the boat’s rigid hull being topped by an inflatable sponson. She carries a crew of four people.

RNLI media contacts

  • Chris Davey, Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer, Whitstable Lifeboat Station.
    07741 012004/ nativephoto@hotmail.com

  • Paul Dunt RNLI Press Officer London/southeast/east Tel: 0207 6207416 Mob: (07786) 668825Paul_Dunt@rnli.org.uk

Lewisco, Whitstable's Atlantic 85 Lifeboat.

RNLI/Chris Davey

Lewisco, Whitstable's Atlantic 85 Lifeboat.

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