The Hayling Island voluntary lifeboat crew were called out just after 6.20am on Sunday 11 July to join the Coastguard and the police in a search for a young man who was reported missing after he took his friend’s canoe out for a paddle.

Both the Hayling Island inshore lifeboats were launched. As it was only approximately 90 minutes after low water, the Atlantic 85 lifeboat ,Derrick Battle, could only searched in the deeper waters of Chichester Harbour whilst the smaller D Class, Amanda, James & Ben, was able to search the shallow creeks.

At approximately 7.15am the lifeboat crew in the D Class lifeboat found an upturned canoe at the entrance of Mengham Rythe creek. The Atlantic 85 crew later found the paddle in the harbour.

The Coastguard helicopter had joined the search and was circling around the area when the Coastguard received a 999 call from a yacht on a mooring in the creek, but aground in the mud, reporting that a body could be seen in the mud nearby.

The lifeboat crew located the position of the yacht and found the body of a young man in the mud and brought him ashore where he was pronounced dead on scene by an RNLI paramedic.

Nigel Roper, Hayling Island Lifeboat Operations Manager, said: “This was a tragic accident that may have been avoided if the young man had been wearing a lifejacket or a buoyancy aid and had told someone that he was going out in the canoe. Our sympathies are with his family and friends.”

We have struggled along with this website for sometime, the technology it uses is pretty good but the way it was set-up by the company we hired was not so hot! So we have decided to commision a new website which will go live this summer. ChichesterHarbour.co.uk has been proving very popular recently with thousands of visitors flocking to the site during busy periods.

We shall be out and about at the best events locally this summer and you will also hopefully see us on the water soon! 

Watch this space! or follow progress on Twiter.com/chiharbour

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The RNLI station on Hayling Island, on Sunday 16 May, will be celebrating over a hundred years of saving lives at sea by launching a new book about its history and launching the lifeboats.

The new book, “History of the Lifeboat Station” takes the story of Hayling Island lifeboat station from 1865 until the present day and includes some stunning pictures of the new lifeboats in action and details of some significant rescues over the years, including three horses.

The RNLI opened the first lifeboat station on Hayling Island in 1865, (which is now the Inn on the Beach), to assist distressed sailing vessels entering the Solent and the harbours of Chichester and Langstone. However, in 1924, when lifeboats with engines were stationed at Selsey and Bembridge and an un-powered lifeboat on Hayling Island was no longer required, the RNLI station was closed.

By 1966 a large number of visitors and pleasure craft were using the beaches and seas off Hayling Island and a new rescue service was started which led to the formation, in 1971, of the Hayling Island Sea Rescue & Research Organisation (HISRRO). In 1975 HISSRO and the RNLI joined forces to establish a new RNLI station on Hayling Island at the entrance to Chichester Harbour, its current location.

Since 1975, the RNLI’s voluntary lifeboat crew on Hayling Island have rescued over 1,100 people, saved the lives of 433 people and 3 horses. The Hayling Island lifeboat station, which is run by 45 local volunteers, now has two inshore lifeboats and in 2009 it was the 6th busiest RNLI station in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, with 120 launches rescuing 119 people.

Commander Conrad Davies, Honorary Station Treasurer, who managed the project, said: ‘Sponsorship covered the cost of the publication of the new book so all proceeds of its sale, at £5.99 a copy, will go entirely to the RNLI and help towards the running cost of the lifeboat station which is approximately £70,000 per annum.’

The book will be launched at a public event at Hayling Island lifeboat station, Bracklesham Road, Hayling Island, on Sunday 16th May at 11.00 am when lifeboat crew will demonstrate on the water the capabilities of the new lifeboats on Hayling.