UK Lifeboat Crew

The Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service's annual New Years Days Swim went ahead today at 12:00

A Rescue demonstration between the Coastguard Rescue helicopter 104 and Gosport Rescue 1 took place before the main event with formation transfers and a crewman being winched from the water.

A record 262 swimmers took part in today's events raising funds for 35 charities and organisations, in brilliant sunshine Afterwards swimmers were provided with hot showers courtesy of Hampshire Fire and Rescue mobile shower unit and hot drinks provided by GAFIRS

GAFIRS alone raised £2511.46

GAFIRS is an Independent Lifeboat charity which is a declared facility with the Coastguard 24/7 and is not part of and does no receive any funding from the Main National Lifeboat Charity.

All members are 100% volunteers and no one receives any payment for their time and services.

The link below is to our photo's of the event today and you have permission to use the photo's as long as the the photographers name which is on each photo is acknowledged.

http://www.gafirs.org.uk/gallery2

For the last ten years Bay Search and Rescue a volunteer team and charity based in Flookburgh, have been working away very quietly, but very hard, solving some of the problems faced by Rescuers when trying to safely navigate the unpredictable sands of Morecambe Bay. And then once navigated how to best extract those unfortunate men, women, children, animals and vehicles trapped by the notorious sands, before the next tide!

These logistic and technical rescue abilities are unique to the Flookburgh team, who over the last few years have made a great effort to share them with the rest of the rescue world, and soon are to be published in ‘Technical Rescue’, an Internationally respected and renowned rescue services magazine.

The range of dedicated rescue vehicles the team has available includes a Hagglund ATERV (All Terrain Emergency Rescue Vehicle) personnel carrier/ambulance and a Hagglund ATERV cargo carrier with crane. These tracked vehicles originally designed for military use in the Arctic are capable of travelling safely over almost any terrain and have full amphibious capabilities. The team are also in the final stages of building what they believe is the UK’s first Search and Rescue airboat. Similar to those now used by the US Coastguard to great effect in the evacuation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, these craft can travel safely in any depth of water (or even no water at all!), but with no moving parts underwater are ideally suited for flood relief and the shallow channels of the Bay.

Joint training exercises undertaken with Cumbria Fire & Rescue proved to be of such a revelation to the local Fire crews that the question was asked if Bay Search and Rescue could assist them with other quicksand rescue requirements and also many other types of incidents further inland. Suggestions proposed included: Moorland and forest fires; to safely transport fire crews and heavy equipment to the scene. Animal rescue: a recent success extracting a horse from quicksand at Silverdale proved this point. Flood rescue; transporting crews, welfare into flood areas and recovering people back out safely (and warm and dry!). Recovery of crashed vehicles, aeroplanes etc from difficult to access areas. And of course any operations involving snow or blocked roads and gaining access to stranded vehicles and cut off homes.

After proving the teams capabilities to Cumbria Fire & Rescue Senior Officers and a subsequent visit from the Cumbria Chief Fire Officer Dominic Harrison to the station at Flookburgh, a Memorandum or Understanding has been drawn up and is to be officially signed on Thursday 22nd October in the presence of MP Tim Farron, Councillors Iain Stewart and Pru Jupe. This will result in Bay Search and Rescue becoming an on-call Technical Rescue and Support unit for the whole of Cumbria, who can be called on by local Crews who have the need of such specialist vehicles, equipment and skills.

Station officer and long standing Chairman Gary Parsons said

“After many years of providing our life saving service on the coast in just in our local area, we have realized that we can offer so much further inland. We will never neglect our primary duty to the safety of those unwitting few, who are unlucky enough to fall foul of the sands of the Bay. But we are not alone in our quest to make our part of the country as safe as possible, and no one team or agency alone ever has all the right solutions and answers”.

“Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service are the professionals we all rely on for so many different things, and fulfil many different roles in the search and rescue environment. From fires and floods to people trapped in cars, to derailed trains and quicksand rescue to mention but a few”

“The signing of this Memorandum of understanding between our two organisations, is a common sense step in the right direction for the future, making good use of our unique vehicles and skills available to this county, and to the wellbeing of those who live and visit here”

“This is a very proud moment for me and the team, and for us goes someway towards recognition for all that we have achieved in the past"

Waitrose supermarket has a unique fund raising project for small local charities many of which do not receive the publicity they deserve.

Customers fill in a form suggesting charities they would like to support. Three are selected each month, and the details of the objects of 3 are each month posted on a glass box with a slot for each good cause.

Every time a customer shops they are given a green token to put in the slot of their choice. The allocated money which is calculated by the number of tokens and then divided by the ratio of tokens for each of the three organisations.

Public support for the Venturers was shown by having the highest number of tokens. The money will be used to provide new life jackets.

Venturer Rescue One was tasked on Friday 02-10-2009 evening to the assistance of the yacht "beefeater" when they lost engine power in the middle of the shipping channel of Calshot. As VR1 was launching at Calshot on exercise they were able to be on scene within two minutes. The vessel was taken in tow to Cowes and berthed safely alongside at Shepards Wharf.

Saturday passed without incident however Venturer Rescue one continued its good working relationship with the coastguard and completed a night time helicopter exercise with Rescue 104.

On Sunday VR1 was tasked by Solent Coastguard to launch to the assistance of a vessel aground in Newtown Creek. VR1 made good speed to the scene however shortly before arrival the Harbour Master towed the vessel clear. VR1 was still asked to proceed by the Coastguard and VR1 checked that the occupants were ok and that the vessel had not suffered and structural damage, all was well on board.

Late during the afternoon it came to the attention of the crew that a large diesel slick was appearing to come from the Beaulieu River. Venturer control scrambled VR3 to trace the source with VR4. Both boats proceeded in opposite directions and ascertained that the slick was from Gull Island to Lepe Spit and was coming ashore.

Solent Coastguard was advised of the situation and with their permission the Rescue Quad was dispatched from control to warn people on Lepe beach of the dangers. Especially as dogs were playing in the water on the beach as well as fishermen down by the launch area. Solent Rescue Independent Lifeboat also sent foot patrols to collect samples and warn the public.

Solent Coastguard also sent the Coastguard helicopter 104 to take photos and monitor the extent of the slick.

The coastguard called the Beaulieu River Harbour Master, and New Forest District Cancel, whilst ABP Southampton bought Environmental officers to the scene via Southampton Patrol Boat.

On Monday evening 05-10-2009 the Venturers Search and Rescue and Lymington RNLI Lifeboat completed a casualty handling exercise, immobilising a casualty aboard the baverstock vessel off Lymington who had suffered a broken arm and spinal injuries. The Lymington Lifeboat arrived on scene first and stabilised the casualty. Venturer Rescue One then arrived on scene with a spinal board and the casualty was carefully loaded onto the board and transferred to the Venturers vessel. The usual methods of calling larger boats and the CG helicopter were all complicated by various assets not being available meaning that Lymington and Venturers had to work together to deal with the situation and get the casualty ashore.

The exercise is the first one to show the newly developing working relationship between the Venturers and Lymington RNLI Lifeboat, it promoted team work between the services in a difficult situation.

The Venturers team would like to extend our thanks to Mike Crowe, 2nd Helm of the Lymington Lifeboat for his warm reception of our request to set up a training exercise and indeed to the rest of the crew for making a fantastic exercise happen.