Summer weather cut lifeboat call-outs (From Western Telegraph)

Summer weather cut lifeboat call-outs

8:50am Sunday 30th September 2012 in News

Pembrokeshire's RNLI lifeboats made nearly 100 launches during the summer.

Tenby was the busiest of the county’s stations, and the second-busiest in Wales, with a total of 31 launches from the start of June to the end of August.

Its all-weather lifeboat was called out 12 times, and the inshore craft responded on 19 occasions.

The county claimed nearly 20 per cent of the total launches in Wales, where lifeboats went out 496 times.

This was a drop on the previous summer’s total of 559 and the fall is being put down to the season’s poor weather.

Andy Hurley, the RNLI’s training inspector for Wales and the west said: “It seems that the combination of both wet and windy weather have kept people in port this summer, which at times has been a good decision, especially for leisure craft users.”

He added: “The number of lifeboat launches might be down compared to last year’s figures, however, this doesn’t take away from the invaluable work that the volunteer lifeboat crew do across the coast.”

Angle’s all-weather lifeboat went out 15 times, with five missions for the inshore boat.

Little and Broad Haven’s inshore craft had 14 launches, with ten each for the St Davids all-weather and inshore crafts.

Fishguard had eight callouts for the all-weather lifeboat and five for the inshore vessel.

Anglesey was the busiest Welsh station, with its inshore craft launching 35 times over the summer.

Wales’ fourth-busiest station was Cardigan, where the inshore lifeboat was launched 26 times, compared with 17 over the same period last year.

One of the most lengthy services in Wales was carried out by the St Davids allweather crew.

They spent more than five-and-a-half hours out at sea in response to a yacht with mechanical failure which was towed to safety in deteriorating weather.

RNLI volunteers also took part in major events, including St Davids coxswain David John, who was on board the charity’s Tamar class lifeboat which formed part of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in June.