109 SPONSORED BY PREMIER NOSS ON DART


NEWS FROM THE RNLI LIFEBOAT TEAM IN DARTMOUTH


A DEATH IN FLINTSHIRE SAVED A LIFE IN DEVON Elaine McCleod Scott left a legacy to the RNLI and when she died the money was used to construct a new D class lifeboat, number 812, which was named after her. On this occasion, the new boat was placed in the Relief Fleet at Poole. Every class of lifeboat has many lifeboats in the Relief Fleet ready to temporarily replace station lifeboats whenever they require regular or emergency maintenance. There is even a replacement for the four RNLI Hovercraft based around our coasts. When the Dart lifeboat needed an urgent repair, there was no RNLI cover locally for four hours, which is the time it took to bring a replacement boat and transfer all the equipment to the relief boat. Inshore lifeboats are serviced approximately every


three years, depending on their usage and the condi- tions in which they operate. When D702, Spirit of the Dart, went for service in late September her place was taken by the new boat. She was so new that the engine only had ten minutes of usage on the clock. Over a period of just under four weeks whilst D812 was with us, there were four shouts and they exemplified the range of situations the crew are frequently called to. At around 11pm on Saturday 23 September an 80


Below: The specialised transport which brought D712 back to Dart Lifeboat Station after servicing.


D812 attending the emergency at Jenny Cole’s Cove.


Photo by Andy Kyle. His cries for


help were heard by John Sealey, the River Taxi operator.


year old Dartmothian was transferring himself from the pontoon moored in the river on the Kingswear side


to his live-aboard yacht when he fell in. His cries for help were heard by John Sealey, the River Taxi operator who had just brought him across the river before the taxi was berthed for the night. He realised that the casualty was not wearing a lifejacket and threw him a life ring which he secured so that it could not float away, but he was unable to lift him from the water. Mr Sealey immediately called the Coastguard who paged the lifeboat crew. Not only was it a relief lifeboat but the helm that night,


Photographer John Fenton.


James Hoare, Senior D class helm from our flank station at Torbay, was covering the Dart helms for the weekend. The volunteers were on the water in nine minutes and, directed by the Dart crew, the lifeboat reached the scene two minutes later. The casualty was barely able to respond due to the cold and Haydn Glanvill, paramedic on the Dart lifeboat crew, went into the water to help get him out. The sailor could only be lifted out when the life ring had been removed and by then he had been in the water for some twenty minutes. The lifeboat crew used a neoprene hood to stop him losing heat from his head, gave him oxygen and wrapped him in a self-heating thermal blanket. (When the blanket is flapped, chemicals within it inter-react and produce heat.) He was brought ashore with the help of the Dartmouth Coastguard volunteers and the Police at the Lower Ferry landing slip and transferred to a waiting ambulance.


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