Whitstable's Atlantic capsizes on service to f[shing^)gats The dangers facing lifeboat crews were cgraphically illustrated at Whitstable on Sunday 3 January 1999 when the station's Atlantic was capsized by a breaking sea soon after launching.

Helmsman Mike Judge and Crew Members Paul Kemp and Andy Williams had launched at 1330 to go to the aid of some angling dinghies when the capsize happened.

The waves generated by the Force 9 onshore wind were steep and short and the Atlantic had difficulty building up enough speed to deal with them. She punched through a few before being hit by a particularly large sea which lifted the bow so high that the crew soon realised that she would not come back down upright. Mike Judge said later: 'One minute we were ten feet up in the air and the next we were three or four feet underwater.' Unfortunately the lifeboat was so close to shore that although the crew activated the righting bag there was not enough sea room to right her properly and she - and the crew - were washed up on the beach.

Not long after launching into an onshore Force 9 Whitstable's Atlantic begins to rise to a large sea (main photol. The sea is so sleep that the bow continues to rise and as she begins to fall back into the next trough she is almost vertical (top inset). She capsizes bow over stern and floats upsidedown (lower insetkinti! the crew activate the inflatable ba All of the crew were unhurt and damage was relatively minor, although the lifeboat was withdrawn immediately and a relief boat was on the way to the station within hours.

The dinghies were escorted to safety by Sheerness's all-weather lifeboat and a helicopter some half-an-hour later.

The whole incident had been captured on video and featured in several news broadcasts..