New Year, and all change at Poole Lifeboat station

The ‘City of Sheffield’ the all-weather lifeboat or ’big orange’ boat as the locals called her was decommissioned in November after being on service at Poole since 2002, she has been replaced with a relief Inshore boat D-798, which will work alongside the other Poole inshore lifeboat B-826 and all-weather lifeboats from flanking stations. A new D class has been commissioned for Poole but will arrive on station after the bridge works has finished.

There is no longer a full-time crewman at the station, so it is now a ‘closed door’ station manned entirely by volunteers, as and when. The floating boat house that housed the Atlantic Lifeboat has been removed due to the ongoing Poole lifting bridge works that are scheduled to finish late summer. The lifeboats are currently situated on a floating pontoon, ready to launch and there are plans for a new floating boat house when the bridge works have been completed, and our sleeping gnome mascot that was the night watchman has been safely stored away, in hibernation!

The station has been preparing for this major change, taking on new recruits as some of the all-weather lifeboat crew have stood down or have moved onto other volunteering role within the station. The trainees have been busy training alongside current crew, exercising and preparing for the change of vessels and acquainting themselves with the new systems on the different boats, throughout this turmoil with the bridge and ‘downgrade’ of the station, the volunteer ethos and spirit , to save lives at sea is still as strong and unwavering as ever as Poole Lifeboat station continues to be one of the busiest coastal RNLI lifeboat stations in the country, our values remains the same to provide a lifesaving service using volunteers with voluntary donations supplying the funds needed to do so.

Last year saw the crew busy on the water responding to ‘Shouts’ and training but also on land with visits to the station and out into the wider community, sharing key safety messages, liaising with yacht clubs, holding life jacket clinics, training with Kayaker clubs, to sea safety messages with youth groups whether it be sharing knot tying skills with cubs or reminding all people of all ages, of all walks of life, to respect the water, the emphasis firmly on community lifesaving.

The crews and Lifeboat family were involved with ‘Quay life’ supporting the annual Bath Tub race to joining in with the Harry Paye pirate day fun, to giving thanks at the ‘Service of the sea’.

The lifeboat family extends to the Poole and District Fundraisers, for a station to thrive it needs the support of the community and we have solid support from a station visits team, museum Volunteers to box collectors there are lots of volunteering opportunities to get involved, for all sorts of people with as much or as little to give, from joining the crew, to help maintaining the smooth running of the station, or being a shore helper.

The Old Lifeboat Station museum will reopen at Easter, a lovely building with history and a real flavour of the past, if you feel that you can give a couple of hours a week and like to meet people, (over 30,000 people visited through 2016) all we ask is some help with selling the souvenirs that help raise the vital funds that keep the boats afloat. Or how about helping with the collection boxes, you can ‘adopt a box’ and help collect the money or join in with group collections, our fundraisers, stage lots of events throughout the year, if you are interested then get in touch or pop along to the Lifeboat station we will be hosting a volunteer recruitment open morning on Saturday February 28th from 10 till 2.30pm.

Recent events like the Fish (finger) Supper held by the Phao Cubs at Colhill whose fishy feast raised £52 to a Spratts Supper hosted at Lilliput Sailing Club that raised £750,with all the money raised going towards the running costs of the Poole Lifeboats.

A staggering 50 stones in weight, of Spratts, were dished up that equates to a lot of fishies on a lot of dishies. The Spratts were cooked to a secret recipe by the Former 2nd Coxswain, and mechanic and the last Coxswain of Poole Lifeboat. The Spratts Supper is a tradition going back over 20 years, the lifeboat station was once at Salterns Marina, so the connection grew then as the lifeboat crew frequented the sailing club and Lilliput was the first sailing club in Poole Harbour that bestowed honorary membership to the all the crew of Poole lifeboat.