Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes in the minutes before the rescues described in this magazine? Here’s the answer

Just imagine – it’s night. The wind is howling outside but you are tucked up in bed sleeping soundly. Suddenly an alarm wakes you. You look at the clock. It is 2am. You roll over and go back to sleep. But for our thousands of volunteer lifeboat and shore crew, when their pagers go off, they know they are needed and time is of the essence. There’s no chance of a cup of tea or a wash. They’ll throw on some clothes, race for the door and drive, run or cycle to the station. They have just a few minutes to put their kit on, get briefed and launch the lifeboat – every second counts when someone is in trouble at sea.

Help!

The call for help has usually been made via emergency telephone numbers 999 or 112, as a mayday over DSC (digital selective calling) or VHF radio on Channel 16, or from an automated emergency personal locator beacon. It goes first to HM Coastguard or the Irish Coast Guard, who decide which search and rescueassets to draw on.

If the RNLI is needed, the station’s volunteer Lifeboat Operations Manager (LOM) or Deputy Launching Authority (DLA) is paged. They ascertain the exact nature of the ‘shout’, if possible consult the Coxswain or Helm, who has responsibility for the safety of the crew and lifeboat at sea and, in most cases, authorise the launch of the lifeboat. They can refuse, for example, if they deem the wind too strong for an inshore boat to operate or the sea too rough to launch safely but this rarely happens.

Having accepted the mission, the LOM or DLA pages lifeboat and shore crews – and in homes and work places all around, family members and employees drop everything. Meanwhile, more details will come through from the Coastguard.

‘Man’ the lifeboat!

As the lifeboat and shore crew arrive, how is the decision made to select which crew should go out? For an all-weather lifeboat there is always a coxswain, mechanic and up to five others. On an inshore lifeboat there will be three of four crew including the helm. The choice depends on who turns up first when the pagers go off while still ensuring a core of experienced crew. Sometimes a person will be chosen for their particular skills to fit the nature of the shout, for example in a medical emergency. At other times a fairly new crew member might be taken to gain experience. This needs to be a split-second decision, though, as there is no time to waste.

The crew grab their kit: drysuits or all-weather gear, lifejackets, helmets, boots and anything else they will need, often dressing while running to the boat to save a few precious seconds. Depending on the class of lifeboat and how it is housed, various methods and equipment are employed to bring it to the water, engines are started, important checks are completed and off they go.

The RNLI’s Concept of Operations states that the charity provides a strategically located fleet of allweather lifeboats available at all times and tactically placed inshore craft (which are subject to weather limitations) around the UK, RoI, IoM and CIs. And our Strategic Performance Standards are to achieve an average launch time from receipt of call to launch of 10 minutes. When you consider the remote locations of some of our lifeboat stations and the complex demands on our thousands of operational volunteers, this is no mean feat.

Ways and means

Padstow Lifeboat Station, Cornwall, is perched high on the cliffs at Trevose Head. It is 5 miles from the fishing town of Padstow where most of the crew live. In spite of this, their average time from pagers to getting the all-weather lifeboat out of the boathouse, down the slipway and into the water is 11 minutes and always within 15 minutes. Mike England, Mechanic at Padstow, explains how this is achieved:

‘The two caravan parks near the station have crew pagers, so they know when we’ve been called. They do a good job of making sure that the road (a narrow country lane) is clear for us. We also have an RNLI 4x4 vehicle in the town, and use flashing lights to help us get through but we still have to drive safely, obviously.

‘Then, while the crew are getting their kit on and boarding the boat, I’ll be getting the boat ready and the shore crew prepare the slipway for launch. The big doors are opened and the winch started. The boat tips on its cradle, the winch cable is paid out and the boat is lowered outside the doors, where the masts are raised. It’s then released. If we need a quicker launch we can launch directly from inside the boathouse but not in rough weather. The whole process takes just a few minutes.’

At Southend-on-Sea in Essex, the lifeboat station is positioned at the end of a long pier, necessitating a golf-type buggy for the crew to get to the lifeboat station quickly. Their inshore lifeboat is launched from the pier by davit (a kind of crane) before they climb aboard. At Kinsale, Co Cork, the crew need to be sitting in the boat before it is gently lowered onto the water – not so easy on a windy day!

In holiday resorts such as Lymington, Hampshire, and Fowey, Cornwall, crew have to contend with traffic congestion to get to the station. Meanwhile, in Dungeness, Kent, the Mersey class lifeboat is taken by tractor-propelled carriage from the boathouse across a huge shingle beach down a steep incline to the water’s edge. And shore crew at Bridlington, East Yorkshire, take their Mersey across a busy road.

Portree, Isle of Skye, is one of 26 stations whose lifeboat lies afloat on a mooring buoy. Second Coxswain Hamish Corrigall says: ‘I live 1 mile from the station. We have to get into the station, get kitted up, go to our ex-D class lifeboat and take her to the Trent class lifeboat and get her started – then we’re off. All this takes about 10 minutes.’

Listen out

In previous centuries, the firing of a maroon (a high explosive rocket) would call the crew to action at about 60% of stations, a job now successfully done by the pager system. In the last 3 years the RNLI has conducted a feasibility study of bird scaring equipment, to find out if it would help in warning the local community to clear the route at the same time.

An array of sirens is being tested, tailored to various locations. Fleet Operations Manager Rob Aggas is involved in the trial and explains: ‘The siren is intended as a local area notification device for up to 1 mile from the station, to assist with access and to let other boat users know the lifeboat is about to launch.’

While the decisions over sirens are yet to be made, there will certainly be no delays to our lifesaving service that is needed now more than ever, whatever the location, and however challenging the environment. Our crews will still have interrupted sleep, half-eaten meals left on the table and be running down to the lifeboat station while getting dressed, to get to the lifeboat on time and rescue those in trouble at sea.