Volunteering Safety in Numbers

Published 01:00 on 27 Apr 2023

We all want to feel safe in and around the water and Wednesday April 26th saw many of the volunteers who keep us safe coming together for a training exercise at Woolverstone Marina and Lodge Park. An evening training exercise, organised by the Woolverstone Project, brought together two local Coastguard teams (Felixstowe and Holbrook) and the Harwich all-weather lifeboat. All the boats were moored at Woolverstone Marina to allow the various volunteers to discuss working together on a range of rescue scenarios.

The Coastguard teams brought their vans and all their equipment and over the course of the evening briefed the Woolverstone Project team on the specialist equipment they had and how they use it to rescue people stranded in the mud on the river. The Woolverstone Project volunteers in turn showed the lifeboat crew and Coastguard team the specially adapted boats which they use. These boats mean that anyone, whatever their disability can get on the water. They demonstrated the operation of the boats and the many opportunities they provide for their service users.

After the training exercise was complete, the RNLI crew gave us a tour of the all-weather lifeboat and it was immediately clear why it is described as an "all-weather" boat.

Last updated 16:08 on 22 May 2023