Events

National Science Week

The Poole Lifeboat Station was Open to the public today as part of the National Science week.
Visitors of all ages descended upon the station, to chat to the crew and engineers from RNLI headquarters, about the uses and exciting changes of technology within the RNLI.
Coxswain Jonathan Clark said "things have changed so much since I joined the crew some 18 yrs ago and when my father was on the crew before me, navigation, equipment, training and the type of boats its incredible when you start looking back."
There was a model of the "FSB 2" the lifeboat of the future on display. The prototype is currently on trials in Plymouth, but it is due back in Poole harbour later this year and you may be lucky to catch a glimpse of it going between the quays
Also on trials in random stations around the country are the cordless communication headsets which were on show. These are headsets for the crew to communicate with each other whilst at sea. They are easy to operate, water proof, have a long battery life and a long range. They also have no wires to get tangled up in. We had night vision equipment on display. Design engineers were on hand to talk about future boat designs and the types of materials being tested. Very futuristic was a "SIM" chair on display which was a helm seat with a console which was very impressive. The console could be configured to display different types of boat information. It was so advanced Jonathan added "If we had one of these here I could operate the lifeboat without leaving the station." There was also a sea safety display, jet boats and tractor vehicles (which look like they were from an Apollo mission but are used at stations where it's difficult to launch a boat because the tide goes out a long way).

To top it all there was also a "Shout" for real.
The public had the opportunity to witness a Launch, the Inshore lifeboat was requested by the coastguard to assist a 6 meters yacht called "radical" There was an initial report that the yacht had gone aground off Brownsea Island, near to Pottery Pier.
When the lifeboat arrived there was a person in the water and another person on board who had dropped the sails down. Their outboard was not working and they had ended up washed up on the beach. The ILB helped them to sort themselves out and then the ILB towed them safely back to Poole Yacht club.

....		The crew at the station on Poole Quay show members of the public over the boats.  Copyright Newsquest