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DART D’TALES PROVIDED NEWS OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS FROM THE RNLI LIFEBOAT TEAMS IN DARTMOUTH. SIMILAR NEWS ITEMS WILL NOW APPEAR REGULARLY IN BY THE DART MAGAZINE.


LATEST LAUNCHES Traditionally, the early months of the year are quiet for the crew and the team concentrates on training especially as we have four new volunteers who have joined the lifeboat and shore crews. This year has been exceptional and they have been called out eight times already. Helping to free a humpback whale which has been feeding close inshore along the coast in Start Bay for several weeks must be a first for the RNLI, especially as they were called out not once but twice. The aim of the charity is to “save Lives at sea” and this includes providing safety cover and assisting if required, organisations such as British Divers Marine Life Rescue. Normally any rescue footage is taken by one of the crew wearing a helmet camera. On both these occasions the crew used the video facility on a hand held waterproof Pentax camera. Many will have seen clips from our films used by BBC Spotlight and ITV local news as well as other online news providers. The full films which are two to three minutes long, can be seen on the www.rnli.org.uk web site in the News Centre video section for 22 March and 01 April. There were 370,000 viewings of the first rescue on the first day alone.


SAVING LIVES AT SEA. The BBC has commissioned a second series to appear this autumn. each of the four programmes in 2016 was viewed by over three million people. It is planned to move this year’s 12 part series to BBC 2 and to feature it at an earlier viewing time before 9pm. ‘Blast Films’ are producing the series and have already visited the Dart station and filmed in the Dartmouth area to give background to the whale launches and to the French trawlers that capsized in the harbour. The film company will use our video footage to make its own films. Torbay RNLI lifeboat which featured in the last series will be appearing again.


LIFE JACKET CLINIC This year’s clinic was much busier than in previous years and there was a line of seafarers queuing from 10am until after 3pm to have their jackets checked and inflated by the team from Ocean Safety in Plymouth.


The RNLI Dart Life Jacket clinic with the team from Ocean Safety


We will try and arrange things better next year to make any waiting period more interesting. John Yunnie, the RNLI Dart Sea Safety Officer who arranged the event, had put up many posters and Mark Cooper, the Dartmouth Harbour Master, arranged for information about it to be sent to all the Dartmouth Berth Holders. Over 180 life jackets were examined and 18 were condemned, mostly due to non-functioning or corroded cylinders. The RNLI have a slogan, “useless unless worn” We could add another. “It is best not to rely on a non-functioning life jacket.” Repeated surveys have shown that many transferring from boat to shore in Dartmouth harbour are still not wearing life jackets or buoyancy aids. Plans are being put forward to have life jacket lockers installed on the quayside so that the bulky items do not have to be carried around town. This is one of the reasons given for not wearing them.


MARK STRUDWICK’S FIRST DAY. On 1st April 2017 Mark took over the voluntary role of RNLI Dart Lifeboat Operations Manager from Rob Clements, who had held the post for the previous ten years. If Mark’s first day was anything to go by he is in for a very busy time indeed. From early that morning the life jacket clinic was being set up in the lifeboat station. The inshore lifeboat was already on proactive


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