EASTBOURNE: Two 11-year-old boys were rescued by Eastbourne's I6f't I) class inflatable lifeboat on the evening of Thursday, January 7, 1988, after their small dinghy filled with water and began to sink. Their cries for help were heard by an angler, who raised the alarm. The lifeboat, with Helmsman Ian Stringer and Crew Members John Cooper, Malcolm Hollohone and John Ward on board, launched within 10 minutes of Dover Coastguard's call-out and arrived at the scene two minutes later at 1742. Coastguard Sector Officer Graham Russell tired a parachute flare to illuminate the boys' empty boat. Using a battery-powered searchlight, the lifeboat crew spotted one of the casualties and pulled him on board, with help from Crew Member Hollobone, who entered the water. The second boy was seen 50 yards away, but then disappeared. Crew Member Hollobone let go his hold on the lifeboat to enable his colleagues to reach the boy quickly. Both boys were landed safely and taken by Mr Russell in his Coastguard Land-Rover to hospital, where they were treated and later reunited with their grateful parents. The lifeboat, meanwhile, re-launched to pick up the fourth crew member and to recover the boys' boat.

photograph by courtesy of the Kastbourru1 Herald 265.