The Hayling Island Lifeboat Station Open Day on Sunday 26th July attracted hundreds of visitors who came to look around the recently extended building and watch demonstrations by the voluntary lifeboat crew of the launch and recovery of the two inshore lifeboats; the Atlantic 85 lifeboat, Derrick Battle, and the smaller D Class lifeboat, Amanda, James & Ben.

During the first display at 11.30, when the lifeboats were showing their manoeuvrability in front of the lifeboat station, the large crowd watch the D Class lifeboat move quickly away when its crew noticed a high performance racing dinghy had been capsized for some while near West Wittering . The dinghy had broken equipment and the sailor was taken onboard the lifeboat and his dinghy was towed back to the lifeboat station.

The fun activities continued during the day with the visitors enjoying the demonstrations, guided tours around the station, displays and children’s activities, including model lifeboats on a pool. But the fun for the lifeboat crew quickly changed to full action stations when the Atlantic 85 was quickly launched on three separate occasions in response to distress calls from yachts in the vicinity; one aground on a sand bank with a rope around its propeller, one with failed power steering and one with a jammed rudder. On each occasion, the yachts, which were all in choppy sea conditions, were towed by the lifeboat to safety.

This particularly busy weekend for the lifeboat crew started Friday afternoon when the Atlantic 85 lifeboat joined Portsmouth RNLI lifeboat and the Coastguard helicopter in a search for a man missing from a jet ski that was found washed up on the beach at Eastney. The man, who had been in the water for 25 minutes was found by a wind surfer and taken on board Portsmouth lifeboat and back to the shore.

On Saturday soon after returning from a training and PR exercise at Langstone both lifeboats responded to a distress call from a yacht in Hayling Bay where a man in his 60s was washed overboard by a large wave and unable to get back into his vessel. The couple from Hertfordshire were out for a day's sailing to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. His wife threw him a line but in the choppy seas he was being hit by his boat. A local boat, Hayling Rescue, also responded to the distress call and a lifeboat crew member, Jasper Graham-Jones, joined the skipper of this vessel to help search for the yacht whose position was unclear. When Hayling Rescue reached the yacht Jasper went into the water to assist the man who had been in the water for 40 minutes and had suspected hypothermia. The casualty was eventually transferred to the Atlantic 85 and taken back to the lifeboat station and transferred by ambulance to hospital. The yacht was taken in tow by Hayling Rescue.

Within five minutes of returning to station both lifeboats were immediately launched to assist with a medical evacuation of a man who had broken his leg when a coastal footpath had collapsed at a site inaccessible to an ambulance. The man was transferred in the D Class lifeboat to an awaiting ambulance at Northney Marina.

Ian Fiddaman, Senior Helm said, “It has been a particularly busy weekend for the boat and shore crew. The yachtsman who fell overboard was very lucky that we were all able to respond so quickly. The sea conditions were not good for someone hanging from a rope in the water for 45 minutes.”

Last year the Hayling Island lifeboats were tasked 81 times, this year the figure has already reached 84.