Burnham Area Rescue Boat (BARB), also known as BARB Search & Rescue, is a voluntary independent

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

service, formed in 1992 in

Burnham-on-Sea Burnham-on-Sea is a seaside town in Somerset, England, at the mouth of the River Parrett, upon Bridgwater Bay. Burnham was a small fishing village until the late 18th century when it began to grow because of its popularity as a seaside resort. ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

that operates two rescue

hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious Craft (vehicle), craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull ...

and two inshore rescue boats in the

Bridgwater Bay Bridgwater Bay is on the Bristol Channel, north of Bridgwater in Somerset, England at the mouth of the River Parrett and the end of the River Parrett Trail. It stretches from Minehead at the southwestern end of the bay to Brean Down in the nor ...

area. It is also a registered charity. It mainly operates BBV hovercraft, which have been used to rescue people, animals and vehicles from the

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

s of the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

, but also has two small inshore rescue boats. The construction of its boathouse on the seafront in 1994 was the subject of a television programme and took just three days.

History

Burnham-on-Sea is on the shore of the Bristol Channel and has a long sandy beach, but nearby mudflats and

sandbanks Sandbanks is an affluent neighbourhood of Poole, Dorset, on the south coast of England, situated on a narrow spit of around 1 km2 or 0.39 sq mi extending into the mouth of Poole Harbour. It is known for its high property prices and for it ...

have claimed several lives over the years. At low

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

, large parts of the area become mudflats up to wide due to the

tidal range Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun and the rotation of Earth. Tidal range depends on time and location. ...

of , second only to the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...

Eastern Canada Eastern Canada (also the Eastern provinces or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of the Hudson Bay/Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newfoundland and Labrador, ...

. A lifeboat had been provided in the town from 1836, but this was withdrawn in 1930 leaving coverage for the area to the lifeboat. A charity appeal was established in 1992, by members of the local sailing community, to equip the town with its own inshore rescue boat. In June 1994, the boathouse was built in the space of three days by

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a Welsh-born television and radio presenter, broadcaster, journalist and painter. Early life and education Rice was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales, ...

and a team of builders for the BBC TV series ''

Challenge Anneka ''Challenge Anneka'' is a British reality programme that aired on BBC1 from 8 September 1989 to 15 October 1995 and was hosted by Anneka Rice. It was announced in 2006 that the series was returning, but this time on ITV. The first of the two s ...

''. The site and technical support was provided by

Sedgemoor District Council Sedgemoor District Council was a local government district in Somerset, England covering the Sedgemoor district. It was Local Government Act 1972, established in 1974 by the merger of Bridgwater and Burnham-On-Sea Urban District Councils. It was r ...

. In June 2002, a five-year-old holidaymaker, Lelaina Hall, drowned on the mudflats at Berrow, north of the town. An appeal was launched in association with the Association of Search and Rescue Hovercraft (since renamed Hovercraft Search and Rescue UK) and with the backing of the ''

Western Daily Press The ''Western Daily Press'' is a regional newspaper covering parts of South West England, mainly Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset as well as the metropolitan areas of Bath and North East Somerset and the Bristol area. It is published Mon ...

''. This raised £115,000 to buy a rescue hovercraft, which could operate on mud and in shallow water that was unapproachable for the inshore rescue boat. It arrived on 22 March 2003, and during its first year of operation up to 50 people were rescued. BARB asked the

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

(RNLI) to take over inshore rescue boat work on the coast, which it did on 23 December 2003. The RNLI operates a

Rigid Inflatable Boat A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are ...

(RIB) and a

inflatable boat An inflatable boat is a lightweight boat constructed with its sides and bow made of flexible tubes containing pressurised gas. For smaller boats, the floor and hull is often flexible, while for boats longer than , the floor typically consist ...

from

Burnham-on-Sea Lifeboat Station Burnham-on-Sea Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) search and rescue operations at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset in England. A Lifeboat (rescue), lifeboat was stationed in the town from 1836 until 1930. The pr ...

, which is a short distance from the BARB boathouse and complements their hovercraft.

Boathouse

BARB headquarters, The Marine Rescue Centre, is a single-storey block building that matches the adjacent tourist information centre Burnham Information And Rescue Support (BIARS) and public conveniences. The boathouse is at the north end and the

HM Coastguard His Majesty's Coastguard (HMCG) is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible, through the Secretary of State for Transport to Parliament, for the initiation and co-ordination of all maritime search and rescue (SAR) within the ...

have facilities at the other end of the building.

Fleet

Inshore rescue boat

The two inshore rescue boats are Arancia inflatable boats, that can operate in calm inland waters to assist Police with searches for missing persons, usually alongside Avon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. They are also used to help wildlife charities such as Secret World in small wildlife rescues. Their main role is use by BARB Search & rescue's Swift Water Team as part of Surf Life Saving GB.

''Spirit of Lelania''

The ''Spirit of Lelania'' is a six-seat BBV-6 hovercraft designed by

Bill Baker Vehicles Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

and built by Ivanoff Hovercraft AB, in Sweden in 2003. It is long and wide. Initially powered by a engine, it has a cruising speed of over water. In November 2010, the engine was replaced with a new unit from a MG TF sports car, donated by the manufacturer

MG Motor MG Motor UK Limited (MG Motor) is an automotive company owned by SAIC Motor UK, headquartered in London, owned by the Shanghai-based Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor. MG Motor designs, develops and markets cars sold under the MG marq ...

''Light of Elizabeth''

The ''Light Of Elizabeth'' is a four-seat BBV craft intended for training and to reach sites on the

River Parrett The River Parrett flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset. Flowing northwest through Somerset and the Somerset Levels to it ...

where the larger hovercraft cannot operate. It entered service in August 2006. A new larger Italian-designed hovercraft replaced ''Light Of Elizabeth'' in 2013. It was funded by donations from local individuals and groups, and is made of

kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s a ...

rather than fibreglass to make it more resilient.

References

External links

* * {{Lifeboat stations in Somerset and North Devon Independent Lifeboat stations Lifeboat stations in Somerset Hovercraft Transport in Somerset Charities based in Somerset Sea rescue organisations of the United Kingdom Burnham-on-Sea