Dee Bee
Active member
I think the Hemsby boat is out of action as the bottom of their slipway was destroyed in one of the recent storms.
Clacton and Walton Lifeboats
- Thread starter Juan Twothree
- Start date
Dee Bee
Active member
In passing the Time and Tide Museum in Gt Yarmouth has a fascinating section on the history of lifesaving on the East Coast. Not sure it covers the Walton area though.
nortada
Well-known member
Walton has it’s own museum full of interesting artefacts from times gone bye. See museum on #119.
Rather than the RNLI, I believe it is managed by the local council and manned (or should that be personed
) by volunteers, who themselves are fonts on Walton of yesteryear - the foundry and barges mooring off what is now the Walton and Frinton Yacht Club in the Backwaters (this was before Titchmarsh Marina was dug out).Geared towards kids, a good place to visit on a wet afternoon.
penberth3
Well-known member
I guess this isn't an easy task. Apart from the large building, might it need a new beach access ramp? i.e. more problems with land ownership and permissions?
Stork_III
Well-known member
Clacton Station appears to have problems too assuming BBC have got the name correct??
Clacton-on-Sea's RNLI loses five volunteers in one month
Clacton-on-Sea's RNLI loses five volunteers in one month
14K478
Well-known member
Looks like Walton to me. That’s the Walton ALB and the coast in the background will be recognised by everyone here who sails in the Thames Estuary as Frinton from the North-east, ie from Walton!
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Juan Twothree
Well-known member
That is indeed Walton Lifeboat, with both of Clacton's boats.
These things happen sometimes, and it's often an issue at local level.
Someone left my station a couple of years ago, because he had a big argument with the station manager (also a volunteer) as to how he felt the station should be run.
The crew members's mates also left in protest, as did someone else who had to move away for family reasons.
Before you knew it we'd lost 7 crew in a month. It was tough for a while, until new crew had been recruited and trained, but we got through it, and only went "off service" a couple of times.
The RNLI can be very helpful in those situations, as they can provide extra training resources, both on station and/or at the college in Poole, to get the new recruits up to speed.
nortada
Well-known member
Bit of a clue; this picture is credited to Stewart Oxely, who as we all know was part of the Walton team. Additionally, this picture was widely used in the public campaign to publize the problems at Walton.
More interesting, why did Clacton lose 4 volunteers in a month and what were their ages
More important, more bad press for the RNLI (this time from the BBC), when the least needs it.
Yes, new people can be trained up but experience is not so easily replaced.
We have sailed these waters for more than 30 years, which at times can prove rather tricky. Fortunately, we have never needed assistance from the RNLI.
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Juan Twothree
Well-known member
But it's open season for attacking the RNLI now, and there are going to be lots more stories like this.
The RNLI will get blamed whatever they do.
Look at Pwhelli - a dispute within the crew over non Welsh people being allowed to join, which the RNLI spent months trying to resolve amicably, but they still got blamed for it in the recent press.
There was actually a police presence at the RNLI service at Westminster Abbey on Monday, plus an ambulance on standby round the corner, as there had been threats to attack those attending.
14K478
Well-known member
If RNLI HQ were not so tin eared in its attempts to deal with, firstly, long serving volunteers with ideas of their own and, secondly, the media, it would not have these problems. But as I said a few yards up this thread, this sort of dispute goes back almost two hundred years, and RNLI HQ have never got any better.
nortada
Well-known member
KevinV
Well-known member
I'm not very sure he's GodGod, you’re old
14K478
Well-known member
He doesn’t have a dog, so nobody thinks he is.I'm not very sure he's God
KevinV
Well-known member
Not a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George then?
Mister E
Well-known member
Not just non Welsh speakers but a refusal to speak English. This problem has been going on for years.
So the Walton crew agreed to an inflatable dinghy as they knew they couldn't get to a big boat. They are spitting their dummies out over the size.
TwoFish
Active member
Or as the wonderfully fit-for-purpose D Class is described by the RNLI, "The workhorse of the RNLI today" noting that "the D class saves more lives than any other class of lifeboat." It's judged to be the best boat for around half of the stations around our coasts. Still, it is admittedly a 'rubber' (OK, Hypalon) dinghy.
I accept that there are some communities whose pedigree and tradition means something grander may be called for in an emergency
.
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penberth3
Well-known member
I've had this before in the world of work. As a manager the answer has to be "thanks for everything you've done, goodbye". As you say not easy in the short term, but often there's a sigh of relief from those who stayed!
14K478
Well-known member
Fancy putting off to the Outer Gabbard to pull a boat off in the gathering gloom and a rising wind in a rubber dinghy that is kept in a shed the size of an ISO container?
No? Nor me.
No? Nor me.
penberth3
Well-known member
If you'd followed the thread, you'd know other Lifeboats are available.
Mister E
Well-known member
How about going out in the other slightly bigger rubber dinghy with a crew over 55 years old.