Lifeboat crew seeks £900k for new facilities

A lifeboat crew has asked supporters to donate so plans to improve the facilities can be put into action.

Port Isaac RNLI said it needed £900,000 to improve the facilities in the boathouse and to convert the flat above the charity's shop in the village into a crew room with a welfare facility.

Senior helmsman Damien Bolton said the improved facility "would give us a safe haven for the crew and the casualties we bring home".

Planning permission was approved in 2024 and the six to eight month project is set to begin in autumn, during which time the lifeboat will be operational from the top of the village.

Bolton said: "Like the rest of Port Isaac the boathouse we currently work in is a tight squeeze."

He said the boathouse housed the D class inshore lifeboat, a tractor and the large amount of personal protective equipment the 18 seagoing volunteers needed on missions.

The senior helmsman said the crew room was 3sqm (10sqft) which made it difficult for the 46 volunteers to gather for training and briefings and there was sometimes need for a welfare space.

"All of us at Port Isaac volunteer for the RNLI so we all do our day jobs, whether that be builders, fishmongers, bakers or plumbers.

"Then with the sound of a pager, five minutes later we could be in our kit and on the boat going out through the harbour to someone face down in the water, a cliff faller or even more horrific than that.

"This operational facility would give us a safe haven for the crew and the casualties we bring home."

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