THIS week, the RNLI has been rolling out helmet cameras to its lifeboat stations on the Isle of Man and Ramsey’s new piece of kit came at exactly the right moment.
Hours after the volunteer crew had had training in using the new equipment, they were called to action to assist a broken down fishing vessel. The incident, eight miles east of the lifeboat station was captured on film.
After delivering Ramsey’s camera and training package on Tuesday, the station’s crew was called out in its all-weather lifeboat at 6.24am on Wednesday, following a request by Liverpool Coastguard.
The volunteer crew were called out to assist a lone sailor on board a 10m fishing vessel. The vessel, which was heading for Whitehaven, had broken down and had suffered total power loss.
Ramsey RNLI lifeboat took the vessel in tow and passed it over to Workington RNLI lifeboat at around 8.20am.
Ali Clague, RNLI mechanic at Ramsey, said: ‘Just hours after we’d taken delivery of the camera and had a really useful training session in how to edit footage, we got to use it for real.
‘It was really good experience for us to have a go at editing a real piece of footage, as we’d been given plenty of exercises to practice with but this morning we had the real thing. The camera has already been very well received at Ramsey, it will give viewers a rare insight into the day to day work of RNLI volunteers.’
Once edited, the footage will be used in rescue films and will be available to view online, with the aim of supporting the RNLI in fundraising efforts and raising the charity’s profile and enhance its reputation.
To view RNLI videos go to: {http://www.rnli.org.uk/newscentre|www.rnli.org.uk/newscentre}.
