NEWS
Lifeboat Week ends
in an eventful Open Day
With Brixham Harbour
and Marina basking in glorious sunshine, RNLI Open Day on July
27th provided locals and tourists with plenty to see and do,
culminating in the annual Search and Rescue Demonstration at
the Breakwater Beach. |
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Open
to the public the RNLI Lifeboat Station had a display of old
postcards with requests for donations from anyone who had old
postcards of the Lifeboats, whilst the Torbay All Weather Lifeboat
was available for anyone to go aboard and view until 3pm. |
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On the Marina Walkway
Brixham Catch was on hand to offer fresh and cooked seafoods
with some advice on how to look for and buy good quality seafood
and offers on the day of cooked crab two for a fiver. Games
to entertain the large numbers of families attending included
‘Pump up the Boat' which for a £1 a go had young and old
alike madly bailing out the boat provided. |
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Throughout
the Lifeboat Week the treasure hunt that had been running since
the previous Sunday saw Brixham girl Millie take one of the
main prizes, whilst Karen discovered the need for bravery in
accepting her prize of a Parachute Tandem Jump Ski Dive!
The lobster draw was won by Ron Campion,
with Darrell Farley on of the Lifeboat crew taking the 2nd prize.
Local shop Bait and Tackle donated prizes of fishing rods for
the winners of the crabbing competition, which was won by Sam
closely followed by Marlene in second place.
Brixham Artist Lynne
Petes from the Brixham Artists Shoal of Artists also donated
a Lifeboat picture she had painted, with the raffle raising
£402, whilst Shoal photographer Chris Slack exhibited
an amazing array of lifeboat photos and other stunning scenes
capturing Brixham and its weather conditions. |
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| The annual cake auction presented by Ron Campion
and Mark Criddle this year saw a display of 13 cakes that had
been made by the Lifeboat Crew. Prior to the auction judges awarded
Angie Ist prize with her cake raising £13 in the auction.
‘Terry the Turbot' came in 2 nd place and that also raised £13.
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The 3 rd Prize was won by a very interesting cake called the
‘Sandcastle' and looked like a real sand castle raising£5.
4th prize was given to a cake that looked like the graffiti around
Brixham of a seagull on a bomb and was awarded as the most disliked
cake , which still managed to raise a £5 bid. |
| The cake donated by the Seaside Rescue Film Crew
raised another £13, with the most sort after cake being
the Ice Prince, that Ron said was the‘award winning cake held
by our award winning coxswain Mark Criddle', bringing in £14.
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| The raft race final brought a dramatic climax to
the afternoon at the Marina with the Police B Team taking on the
RNLI Lifeboat Team B. Both teams achieved great times to reach
this final which was decided by a Tug of Row! With the tug rope
set under the Marina Pontoon, as well as the challenge of pulling
each other over the line, the Lifeboat Team had to contend with
a soaking from their lifeboat colleagues via a hose connected
to the water pump on the pontoon, before the competition even
got started! |
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Some of the crowd also took it upon themselves to
use their modern day water pistols to soak the teams with their
jets of water. Once underway the Police B Team took control finally
pulling the Lifeboat B Team under the pontoon to win the trophy.
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All
monies raised on the day go to the RLNI with the Brixham Lifeboat
Guild and Lifeboat crew organising all the events each year
to generate funding and an opportunity to celebrate the Lifeboat's
presence within the community. With the Brixham Coast Guard
also on site working in tandem with the RLNI they too were on
hand to promote ‘Sea Safety' and take their place in the Search
and Rescue exercises that rounded off the day. |
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| The staged sea rescue was watched by a packed breakwater
with those viewing extending over 1/3 of the way along the Breakwater.
This most loved annual event allows the RLNI and Coastguard to
display the skills of the crews in a series of constructed rescues.
The old familiar sound of the maroons being set off, signalled
the start of this years event, with the All Weather Lifeboat making
its dramatic appearance creating on shore waves as it head in
to collect supposedly stranded seafarers. However guided by the
Coastguard the promised helicopter never arrived as it was re-routed
to rescue people. Also stranded by the rising tide the Inshore
Lifeboat was directed to head off there and support that rescue. |
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| Then the All Sweater Lifeboat was directed to leave
the exercise and head off to a Shout leaving three of the crew
to swim to a dinghy. Moments later the Coast Guard vehicle with
sirens and flashing lights made their speedy exit from the Breakwater
and out through Brixham Town Centre to deal with another shout,
ending the exercises with an all to real demonstration of how
these special volunteers give up their time at a moments notice
to save the lives of others. |
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