8 minute read
HAMBLE LIFEBOAT
Hamble Lifeboat is an independent Lifeboat Service, which has been saving lives since avid enshall went along to meet some of the brave vol nteers and fi nd o t more about the incredible life-saving work they do.
The new, purpose-built Lifeboat station on Hamble Quay is very much at the heart of the operation. On busy weekends the second-hand book stall, wonderfully managed by the on-shore team, does a roaring trade and is well worth a visit!
Although there are numerous other concentrations of leisure boating activity, surely none of them can match the packed waters of the Solent, Southampton Water and the surrounding harbours.
However, with more people afl oat, with new people coming into the sport, sometimes without a great deal of experience, the result was an increasing number of people getting into trouble.
For the RNLI, those incredible volunteers who seem to achieve near miracles in saving lives at sea, the Solent had been served by a pair of busy lifeboat stations at Bembridge, on the eastern end of the Isle of Wight, and Yarmouth, at the western end. This was ideal for speedy access to some of our most dangerous waters, such as the bar at Hayling, the Needles Channel and Shingles Bank, but this missed out on the fact that so many of the ‘new’ ways of getting afl oat were taking place in the shallower waters of the central and Northern Solent.
With Hamble being such an epicentre of activity, it made sense to have some form of lifesaving activity based there, as this could then serve not only the Northern Solent and Hamble River itself, which was now busy right up past the A27 bridge at Bursledon, but Southampton Water and the increasingly popular areas of the River Test and River Itchen. Clearly something needed to be done, as in one fateful year some 19 lives were lost in these waters, which on the face of it were supposedly sheltered and relatively safe.
Fundraising begins Once the idea of Hamble having its own lifeboat had been accepted, the fundraising would start and in the late 1960s, a 17ft dory was purchased that was called ‘St. Andrew’, after the Parish Church in the village. Many of the early meetings about what would be called the Hamble Inshore Lifeboat were held at the clubhouse at Hamble River Sailing Club, so it was hardly a surprise that some of the high profi le members of the club played a leading role in these early stages.
Top Hamble helm John Oakeley would be the ‘lead’ coxswain alongside another long-term local favourite Nick Robinson, with other coxswains and crew being drawn from supporters on both sides of the river.
The next big issue was a base for the boat and luckily Petters, one of the big local employers at the time, had their own sailing club and slipway, and it was agreed that the new lifeboat could be based there.
Although this got the Hamble Lifeboat operational, the situation was far from ideal, as crews found on the day of the well supported inaugural launch of the new service, when the trailer veered off the edge of the steep slipway.
Once operational, some of their early ‘shouts’, when they had to launch the heavy dory down the slip in the middle of the night and with engines that would struggle to be called ‘reliable’, would really test the fi rst generation of crews. Moreover, in the conditions that one might need the lifeboat, when winds and sea state were at their worst, launching off the lee shore could be well-nigh impossible.
These engines were a serious issue, with one outboard exploding to the point that it blew the cover off, which made being afl oat in tricky conditions something of an operational challenge. It was then found that the fi rst dory had quite high freeboard, which made recovery of a casualty trickier than was desirable.
Luckily for the service, another early member worked at the Naval Station at Lee-on-the-Solent, so even in these early days, Hamble crews were able to practice with the local Air-Sea Rescue helicopter.
Moving forward Crucially, from the very outset, there was an incredible camaraderie amongst not just the teams afl oat but the equally important helpers ashore, with this growing even stronger, as from the very start St. Andrew was being kept busy throughout the year. With the experience gained from practical, operational service, it became clear that there was a need for not just a better boat but a real ‘all weather’ base.
This coincided with the decline in the sailing club at Petters, with the result being that the lifeboat was able to move from the exposed slipway to a far more user-friendly location between Hamble Quay and the Hamble River Sailing Club.
After several years of hard use the St Andrew was retired and replaced by the St. Andrew II, a bigger, more powerful and extremely capable boat that went on to answer many shouts, often in the worst of conditions. One such call, in what could easily be described as ‘beastly conditions’ saw the lifeboat damaged whilst going to the aid of a yacht in danger aground on Stansore Point.
From the RNLI to sailing clubs around the coast and inland, old dory style rescue craft were being replaced by the very successful developments of the RIB, with St. Andrew III following this trend that now had the added advantage of being driven by a water jet, which allowed it to operate in the shallow waters that can often give rise to the trickiest of rescues.
Like so many of the amazing volunteers that are the backbone of the Hamble operation, St. Andrew III was a tireless worker over an extended period of time.
Increasing demand The course of the story of the Hamble Lifeboat can be almost laid parallel to that of the huge expansion in use of not just the water, but the coastlines around the Solent area. This has seen a rising demand for emergency services afl oat, of all capabilities, with the creation of numerous other local rescue operations, plus a much stronger presence in the Solent area from the RNLI.
Thanks to the amazing generosity of local sponsors and the wider sailing public, Hamble has remained very much at the forefront of these changes with a smart new building on Hamble Quay housing its operation and not one, but two powerful Pacifi c 32 RIBs, that together allow the Hamble Lifeboat service to operate a full, allweather 24 x 365 emergency service.
Hamble Lifeboat’s Paul Ackland pointed out that the need for this level of cover continues to increase in line with the growing levels of water related activity. In 2021, Hamble is already looking to be some 20 per cent above their norm of more than 100 ‘shouts’ a year, with recent calls being to not just a yacht in distress, but to someone falling into the water at a marina and another was for two cars that had ended up in the water (the number of people trapped in the water in their cars is worryingly high, with this accounting for a disturbing number of drownings each year).
When things go wrong afl oat, we can thank the volunteers manning the lifeboats who come to our aid. You can make a donation at the Hamble Lifeboat JustGiving page
Fundraising at Hamble All this excellent work puts a great deal of load on to not only the teams who can be paged at any time, night or day, but on the funds required just to maintain this high level of readiness. Currently, it takes some £60,000 per year to keep the Hamble Lifeboat ready to answer another shout, and here mention must be made of the ‘beating heart’ of the organisation.
The purpose-built operations centre completed fi ve years ago on the Hamble Foreshore does not only hold all the necessary equipment needed, but is also home to an equally amazing collection of supporters who are one of the greatest strengths of the team.
From selling books and fundraising, to all of the on-shore tasks that are needed to keep the boat and crew primed, this is the proof that the collective spirit that saw the Hamble Lifeboat service launched more than 50 years ago is as strong as ever.
It is just as well that it is, as with the number of calls being made on the service looking likely to increase year on year, the Hamble Lifeboat team have to look to the future, when the wear and tear of operational use, in all weathers, will require the phased upgrading of their current boats. A new allweather lifeboat, with the powerful engines, plus the high level of fi t-out the boat will require, will cost something in excess of £600,000, and fundraising at Hamble has already started.
As users of the water, we should never forget that if something does go wrong afl oat, that it can so easily become serious and it is at this point that our trust falls into the hands of brave volunteers such as the team at Hamble.
Thankfully, from getting the call on their pagers to actually heading out to provide that assistance can take as little as 15 minutes, but for the people in distress, whoever and wherever they may be, the news that help is on its way is always a real relief. What better reason then to dig in your pockets and come up with a donation, after all, the next person calling for help could be you! www.justgiving.com/hamblelifeboat hamblelifeboat.co.uk
The original Hamble Lifeboat exercising with the Rescue helicopter from nearby Lee-on-the-Solent. The links forged by the crew were important as right from those early days, this would be a busy station
The Hamble Lifeboats are trusty workhorses which have become an instantly recognisable part of life on the river and around the Solent
