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Early Hours Search for Whitstable RNLI

Lifeboats News Release

A report of up to three possibly intoxicated males seen to enter the water at Leysdown, Isle of Sheppey saw the Whitstable RNLI lifeboat launch to assist with a search in the early hours of Monday morning.

Lewisco, the Whitstable Atlantic 85 Lifeboat.

RNLI/Chris Davey

Lewisco, the Whitstable Atlantic 85 Lifeboat.
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Launching at 00.31am the lifeboat arrived ‘on scene’ off Leysdown some 10-minutes later and, using searchlights conducted an extensive search of the coastline as far as Shellness with the Sheppey and Medway Coastguard Rescue Teams in attendance on shore.

At 02.16am Dover Coastguard called off the search and both lifeboat and coastguard units ‘stood down’ with nothing found and the lifeboat returned to station

Weather conditions at the time were good visibility and force 4 Northerly winds.

This was the 8th call of the year for the volunteers at Whitstable RNLI.


Notes to editors

Whitstable RNLI Lifeboat Station was established in 1963 by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and is one of 237 lifeboat stations around the shores of the UK and Ireland. The volunteer crews provide a maritime search and rescue service for the Kent coast. They cover the area between the Kingsferry Bridge on the Swale, in the west, around the south-eastern side of Sheppey and along the coast through Whitstable and Herne Bay to Reculver in the east and outwards into the Thames Estuary.

The station is equipped with an Atlantic 85 lifeboat named Lewisco, purchased through a bequest of a Miss Lewis of London who passed away in 2006.

She is what is known as a rigid inflatable inshore lifeboat, the boat’s rigid hull being topped by an inflatable sponson. She carries a crew of four people.

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  • For enquiries outside normal business hours, contact the RNLI duty press officer on 01202 33678


Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives.

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