Lyme Regis lifeboat called out eight times during fundraising week

The RNLI lifeboat crew answered a record eight emergency calls during the fundraising week in Lyme – and provided the crowds with a chance to see the boat launched and get a timely reminder of the vital service donations support.

And although the number of call-outs caused some difficulties for the organisers, as crew members who were also key members of the Lifeboat Week team disappeared out to sea time and again, the event was declared a major success.

Just seconds after the end of a successful welcome display with the coastguard helicopter, Lyme Regis RNLI lifeboat – and the helicopter – were involved in a real-life rescue mission on the first day of Lifeboat Week to deal with a yacht with steering trouble near West Bay. On another occasion, the Lyme Regis lifeboat, Spirit of Loch Fyne, had just finished performing a safety routine for the RAF Falcons parachute team, who were taking part on the sixth day of the town’s Lifeboat Week, when the alarm was raised to rescue two teenagers who were clinging to the wreckage of their burst inflatable boat for two hours.

Lifeboat crew member Grace Wadsworth, 20, spotted them a mile off the coast with binoculars after the pair were reported missing from Axmouth.

Helmsman Brian Street said: “The boys were in a bad way, clearly suffering from the effects of the cold.

“If we had not found them when we did the outcome could have been very different.

“They were clinging to the wreckage of their burst inflatable.”

After being rescued the boys were taken by the lifeboat to Seaton where they were met by coastguards from Beer and an ambulance.

And on Sunday the crew responded to two calls to take a yacht under tow after its solo crew member had been airlifted to hospital.

Later they rescued a couple cut off by the tide at Church Cliff.

The couple, Sarah Jouault, from Selsey, Sussex, and Nigel Perrett, from Bristol, were taken aboard the lifeboat and returned to the safety of Lyme Regis Harbour.