We’re very happy to share that our long-awaited boathouse Open Day 2021 has been an amazing success! Thanks to our volunteers, friends, their families, local businesses and a little help from the fabulous weather on the day, the day resulted in a record-breaking numbers. 

There was also the marvellous addition of the donated hot tub up on the sea wall, which attracted a huge amount of interest! Donated by Stuart and Louise Homewood of Homewood Leisure, the £5k hot tub was the star prize for our major 2021 raffle and, thanks to its presence on the day, lots of additional tickets were bought in the run up to the draw.

Our launch and recovery vehicle and Pulfer boat took pride of of place on the sea wall, as the first official unveiling of the refurbished vehicle.  Vic Lee, owner of Corbeau seats came down to see the donated Corbeau seat in place and John Pulfer, who was the primary fundraiser for this very costly refurbishment, also came to see it unveiled publicly.

The vehicle was then in action to launch the Pulfer boat for the amazing sea display put on by our volunteer crews. This display demonstrated not only the demands of the vehicle in working on the Pett Level Beach, but also the versatility of our Pulfer boat and smaller Tornado boat, when working jointly and separately in search and rescue situations.

HOT TUB RAFFLE DRAW

The final event of the day was the draw for the generously donated £5k hot tub, from Louise and Stuart Homewood of Homewood Leisure. Present on the day, complete with the hot tub, Stuart had the honour of drawing the prize-winning ticket. With palpable excitement, Kev made the draw and the winning ticket was found to have been bought by ex-PLIRB Chair David Martin, and his wife Barbara!

SPECIAL THANKS TO …

There are so many individuals, businesses and organisations to thank for the success of our day. Here are just some that we have space to give a special mention to:

*  Louise and Stuart Homewood of Homewood Leisure for the donation of the fantastic £5k star prize in our hot tub auction, and to everyone who purchased a ticket.

*  Little Gems and Winchelsea Beach Cafe for vouchers, used as consolation prizes in the Grand Raffle. 

*  Sean at SOS Entertainment for the loan of the PA system for the day

*  Tic Tocory and Tea Beside the Orchard for donating specialist cakes for the cake stall. Huge thanks too to Greens Cakes who donated a job lot of cake mixes, and more thanks for the volunteers and friends who used mixes and their own time and ingredients to make the amazing amount of cakes we had available on the very appetising cake stall!

*  Thanks to all for the generous bottle donations for our bottle tombola, including from the Royal Oak and the New Inn at Westfield.

*  Thanks to Mat and Holly for the musical entertainment, and to Rocky (recently seen on TV in SAS Who Dares Wins) for more gentle entertainment of balloon animal magic!

*  Rother Responders and Fairlight Community First Responders, and to Strandliners for coming along to share information about their own charities, and Rye Bay Coastguards, all organisations we work jointly with.

*  Immy, Henry, Tommy and Archie, our fantastic fundraising pebble painters. They recently raised over £100 for us by painting pebbles which they gave away in return for a donation. They were guests of honour at the event and presented PLIRB with a special pebble painted with our logo.

*  And to Mike Peplar for helping us to capture this outstanding Open Day Sea Display on video.

THANKS TO EVERYONE

And of course to our amazing volunteers and their own friends and families who helped out with planning and delivering this and to everyone who attended or donated in whatever way to make the day a success.

And that record-breaking total?

£6814.65!

 

Now that visitors are allowed (in limited numbers) down at our boathouse, we’re pleased to be having visitors. Our latest, on 4th June 21, was our local Hastings and Rye MP, Sally-Ann Hart.

On her last visit to our boathouse last September our problems accessing grants the local government made available to charities in the pandemic were a real topic for discussion! And since then, mindful of the role we play in the community, Sally-Ann has remained in touch. In particular, Sally-Ann has been working with us to identify how local and national government could better support a charity such as ours – ie: an independent rescue boat service with a unique, historic set up which falls outside of the criteria for the majority of grants made available by the local authority.

But in April, after a long year of challenges and a worrying deficit in our running costs, we finally secured a Discretionary Grant of just under £5,000 from Rother District Council. Sally-Ann was very pleased to hear the news and keen to re-visit to find out more about our work and plans for 2021.

“I was really pleased to hear that the government grant has been useful. I would urge everyone to support this local charity that does so much to support its local community and beach safety.”

Sally-Ann Hart, MP for Hastings & Rye

BOATHOUSE TOUR

Helm and Launch Authority volunteer Steve gave Sally-Ann a tour of the boathouse, operational  facilities and Look Out areas. This opportunity to review our facilities and log-book gave Sally-Ann a good insight into the extensive demands on our self-funded rescue service. And of course, she was also able to see first-hand the facilities and equipment needed to maintain operations.

With this in mind, chat led to the costs of  keeping our rescue service (including the volunteers) fully equipped and safely operational. From there, our future funding and equipment needs were  discussed, so Steve shared the plans for our upcoming equipment upgrade of a Bluetooth, hands-free communication system for our Pulfer boat and crews.

Out in all weathers

All of which led us back outside to view our most recent (and huge) equipment upgrade: the almost-finished replacement launch & recovery vehicle.  As locals know, this vehicle is absolutely essential for launching our boats – whatever the weather and tide is doing! If it’s high, a vehicle’s essential to safely negotiate the shingle beach; if it’s low then there’s a long way to go, across shingle, rocks, sinking mud and sand to get the boats to the water! To cope with all this, the vehicle needs to be fully robust and extremely reliable.

“It’s great to have an update on the work that the volunteers at Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat are engaging with, and to see the new launch and recovery vehicle.”

Sally-Ann Hart, MP for Hastings & Rye

But it doesn’t come cheap and although the vehicle’s now up and running, it’s already cost just shy of £25,000, with more to go. And of course, it doesn’t stop there, as the vehicle that this newly refurbished one replaces now needs an upgrade and refit of its own, as we do need a functional reserve launch vehicle!

Despite the seriously deteriorating weather, Sally-Ann then chatted to other volunteers about these future plans, plus recent call outs, how they have managed to maintain a service throughout the pandemic and the difference that finally receiving the Rother Council grant in helping us to cover our running costs for 2021.

Independent Lifeboat Association

Sally-Ann also gave an update on her collaboration with other MPs, to help establish an Independent Lifeboat Association (ILA). The aim of the ILA is to build awareness and recognition for the work of independent lifeboat and rescue boat charities across the UK generally.

After the visit Kev, our charity’s Chair, had a few words to say about why it’s particularly welcome when the local authority, public figures and businesses support a charity which funds its own running costs, year-in-year out.

“It was good to see Sally-Ann Hart, even though it was so wet and blustery for her visit! Sally-Ann had a good look around the rescue boat facilities and was impressed with what she saw. It’s good to receive the support for what we do and we are heartened by her ongoing support, especially with her involvement with the start of a national independent lifeboat association. Everyone here is a volunteer and we look forward to more interest and support in the future.”

Kev, Chair of PLIRB Charity