Mundesley Volunteer Inshore Lifeboat is a voluntary run

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

station located in the village of

Mundesley Mundesley /ˈmʌndz.li/ is a coastal village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is north-north east of Norwich, south east of Cromer and north east of London. The village lies north-north east of the town of Nort ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

.Lifeboat website
''OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East''. . The station operates one lifeboat which is used for inshore work. The lifeboat service is a "Declared Facility"; this means that H.M. Coastguard regard it as being on a par with the

RNLI 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 ...

. The lifeboat provides its service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to windsurfers, fishing boats, swimmers and divers or anybody in distress within the Mundesley area. The service has also provided assistance to boats of various sizes which have required towing etc.

History

The Parish Council of Mundesley became very concerned after a tragedy occurred half a mile off the beach in Mundesley in 1971. The incident resulted in the drowning and near drowning of a man and his wife whilst sailing their boat. A meeting was called by the Council to discuss the feasibility of establishing an Inshore Lifeboat at Mundesley. It was decided to contact the

and Coastguard to ask for help in setting up a service. Their response was that they would be unable to help due to heavy commitments to other stations in the area.

Independent service

Undiscouraged by this response the Council decided they would set up an independent rescue service. This service would be funded and manned from within the village. As a result of a series of meetings held by the council "The Mundesley Volunteer Inshore Lifeboat Service Ltd" was formed. The organization was to be a Limited Company and registered charity. Being a

Limited Company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by ...

, a board of directors was duly elected who were chosen from a broad section of the local community including proposed crew members. The volunteer crew would take care of the day-to-day running of the boat and the station, whilst the directors would take care of the policy making, fund raising and financial arrangements.

Service commences

By the spring of 1972 the organization was ready to start its service. A Zodiac inflatable was acquired to use as the lifeboat which had been borrowed from a local businessman. This lifeboat was housed in a temporary boathouse on the promenade at the East end of the village. Throughout the summer of 1972 an extensive fund raising campaign was initiated which resulted in the purchase of a 4M Avon Sea Rider semi rigid

inflatable An inflatable is an object that can be inflated with a gas, usually with air, but hydrogen, helium and nitrogen are also used. One of several advantages of an inflatable is that it can be stored in a small space when not inflated, since inflata ...

which was wholly owned by the new Service. Contractors at the close by

Bacton Gas Terminal The Bacton Gas Terminal is a complex of six gas terminals within four sites located on the North Sea coast of North Norfolk in the United Kingdom. The sites are near Paston and between Bacton and Mundesley; the nearest town is North Walsham. T ...

donated a wooden site hut which was converted into a boathouse.

Stability

Since those early days the Service has gone from strength to strength and has taken part in the rescue of some 100 people in trouble. The lifeboat is called out to service by a pager system which is activated by H M Coastguard from their

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

operations room. The lifeboat works closely with other Lifeboat stations in the area both inshore and offshore, and also with the RAF

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 ...

Helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

Squadron now located at

Wattisham Wattisham is a village and civil parish near to the town of Stowmarket in Suffolk, England. From the 2011 Census the population of the parish was 110, according to the ONS, included in the civil parish of Hitcham, Suffolk, Hitcham. Wattisham Air ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. All the crew members are volunteers who are trained in all aspects of search and rescue work, boat handling, first aid, and navigation. The volunteers undertake training all year round. There are lifeboat crew on duty at the station every Sunday and

Bank Holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...

during the summer months.

New station

A new Lifeboat station was built in 2006 which was funded entirely by donations received by the public. The new station is a steel-framed building which has block and brick curtain walling. The roof is constructed from insulated steel cladding. The interior consist of a main boat hall in which the boat and the tractor sit side by side ready for service. Also on the ground floor is the drying room which holds all of the crew's personal protection equipment such as

drysuits A dry suit or drysuit provides the wearer with environmental protection by way of thermal insulation and exclusion of water, and is worn by divers, boaters, water sports enthusiasts, and others who work or play in or near cold or contaminated ...

, helmets and lifejackets. This room is constantly kept warm and damp free to prolong the life of the crews valuable kit. The first floor consists of four main rooms. The lookout is situated on the eastern elevation so that almost the whole of the Mundesley guard is visible. Also kept in this room are charts of the coast and two VHF radios so a constant communications can be kept with the boat whilst it is out at sea. A second room, next door is used as a crew training room. In this room the Lifeboat service hold the majority of their meetings. It is also where training sessions, which are held fortnightly on a Monday night, take place. The other two rooms on the first floor are used as the Coxswains office and a Kitchen area.

Lifeboat

The Mundesley Inshore Lifeboat is a semi rigid

boat of . She was built by Goodchild Marine of Great Yarmouth and she is a Tornado type, called ''Footprints''. The boat is powered by a Mercury outboard engine. This pushes the boat over the water at a maximum speed of .

Notes and references

External links

Lifeboat websiteMundesley on Sea Parish CouncilMundesley village website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mundesley Lifeboat station Mundesley Lifeboat stations in Norfolk Independent Lifeboat stations