NEW Brighton’s lifeboat crew have been kept busy with rescue missions this week. A group of fishermen and a pair of walkers were brought to safety after getting into difficulty. The crew were called to the aid of the three men on August 7 after the small vessel’s engine failed. Onlookers gathered to watch as the crew launched the Atlantic 85 B-837 Charles Dibbin to rescue the group.
Senior Helmsman Dave Lowe said: “When we reached the vessel we took on board two of the fishermen while their skipper stayed on the boat. They had been fishing most of the morning and the engine had failed as they were returning to the New Brighton area.
“We took the vessel in tow and when getting as near to the beach as we dared in the shallow water crewman Ward went into the sea to manually tow the boat towards its waiting trailer and an appreciative audience. The whole operation went smoothly and we were glad to help get everyone safely ashore.”
The station’s hovercraft Hurley Spirit was called into action on August 8 when two walkers were cut off by the tide near Sefton’s coastline. The HM Coastguard, Liverpool, called on New Brighton’s volunteers to lend a hand to the rescue at around 6.30pm. Paul Wright, the Commander in charge of the hovercraft, said: “We found the walkers who were Ok north of the River Alt. They had become disoriented during their walk from Formby and found themselves cut off from land.
“We took the walkers on board and flew them to a waiting Coastguard unit on the Crosby shore. This is an area of extensive stretches of sand, mud flats, gullies and pockets of quicksand, in this case the tide was on the ebb however had it been coming in the walkers would have been in serious danger.
“The hovercraft is the ideal machine for operations in this environment as no other craft could easily have got near to them.”