Volunteers of the Future Visit Station
On Sunday 22nd April we had a visit from 35 children aged between 5 and 11 who were members of the RNLI’s childrens club called Storm Force. After talks and viewing of the stations lifeboat and hovercraft they were treated to a launch and high powered display of the lifeboats capabilities and a ‘man overboard’ rescue. Wallasey Yacht Club gave them boat trips around the Marine Lake where there were further rescue demonstrations. A great day was had by all the children, parents and our volunteers.
Changes to Senior Staff
Mike Jones our Senior Helmsman for the last 6 years and a volunteer with New Brighton for 32 years has handed over the reins of Senior Helmsman to Dave Lowe himself a volunteer for 24 years and of great experience. The RNLI has age limits for the operation of its various craft – in the case of the rapid response Atlantic 85’s the maximum is 45 with a possible extension to 50. However this is far from the end of Mike’s lifeboat career – he will continue to maintain the lifeboat and also to serve as crewman on our hovercraft where the maximum age limit is 55.
During his career Mike has been involved in innumerable rescues, responsible for the saving of many lives and in the last 18 years has spent over 1200 hours at sea on exercises and rescues. On his last exercise in charge of the lifeboat Mike’s intuition resulted in averting a potentially serious incident for the crew of a small fishing boat and towed them to safety.
These changes follow on from the retirement of Cliff Downing after 4 years as Lifeboat Operations Manager and a long career with New Brighton where he has served as crew and as senior helmsman. Graham Sale a Deputy Launch Authority volunteer at the station and with experience with the Coastguard took over from Cliff at the end of last year.