Volunteer call to step on board lifeboat

IF YOU have ever wanted to be a lifesaver, Southport Lifeboat is looking for new volunteers. The service offered by Southport Offshore Rescue is looking for new people to join the crew and help fundraise.

The trust is an independent charity with crews on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They operate two lifeboats and two quad bikes in land and water rescue missions.

The running costs are about £40,000 and no money is received from the RNLI.

Nick Porter, 28, is a trustee of the charity and part of the rescue crew; his uncle and father have also been crew members.

He said: “A long time ago it was the fishermen who were volunteers. Now there’s not so many fishermen. Many of the volunteers we get have very little experience of being out in the water. But we can provide them with training.”

To be a volunteer you must be at least 16 years old and have a relatively good state of fitness, as Nick said the work can be challenging at times.

A typical rescue mission could be anything from a person getting caught out in the tide, to a fishing boat engine breaking down – though a plane crash at the end of the pier was probably one of the most serious missions Nick has been on.

“Our oldest person is 48, then there are a few in their 40s and quite a few in their early 30s,” he said. “It’s a good spread of people, from all walks of life.

“The perks of being a volunteer I’d say are the camaraderie between the crew, you get to meet people that you wouldn’t necessarily meet otherwise. Obviously the training you get and of course the ultimate reward is helping people, reuniting people with their families.”

Currently the team consists of about 40 volunteers, and while some are on speed dial to carry out 999 missions, some donate their time to the shop or office.

The organisation are holding a recruitment evening at their base which is The Boathouse on The Esplanade on Wednesday, November 1 between 6.309.30pm.

Nick said: “We used to have an application form for people to apply to become a volunteer but we found we were judging people based on a form; we’d rather meet people face to face”.

The organisation are looking for about five or six people that could be trained to go out on the lifeboat as crew.

Crew members have to give up one evening a week for training and eventually will be given a pager that would alert them to emergency call-outs.

On average they receive between 15 and 20 call-outs a year.