Day and night, summer and winter, Patch is ready for the next shout

In the third of our occasional series celebrating the work of the Westcountry’s maritime rescue services, Ben Bryant visits Newlyn to meet coxswain Patch Harvey. Pictures by Chris Yacoubian and Phil Monckton

Patch Harvey is a long-standing pillar of the Penlee Lifeboat community, with more than 25 years’ service, the last 13 of them as full-time coxswain. He is one of a small number of paid RNLI staff, which comes at a price. He is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and, unless on holiday, he has to stay with two miles of the lifeboat station at all times so that they can launch in minutes if require.

Despite the unremitting nature of the role, Patch doesn’t appear to mind it too much..

“I’ve spent all my life at sea, in fact I probably enjoy being on the sea more than I do being on land,” he says. “As well as being on call 24/7 we train every week, so that we get it right on a shout. To put that training into practice and know that we’re helping people is a great feeling.”

His first two shouts epitomise the nature of the RNLI’s work and were, as he puts it, a baptism of fire.

“The first one was a bad one, definitely. A light aircraft crashed off Marazion and the two guys on board were killed and we had to go and recover the two bodies. Then my second one we had go about forty-five miles offshore in a Force 9 to tow a fishing boat back in, so we were out all night.”

Being coxswain brings with it huge responsibility. Not only for those that need rescuing but also for his own crew’s safety and wellbeing, not to mention two million pounds worth of boat. When the pager sounds there’s a multitude of factors that need to be considered and decisions that have to be made, all in a very short period of time, as Patch explains.

“Where’s the job, what are we going to be dealing with, what kit do we need, what crew do I take, what are the weather conditions. You know when it’s really poor weather and the pagers go off at night that you’re going to be in for a rough old time – but, basically, I just need to get the facts clear in my head and get a plan together.”

In terms of selecting a crew, Patch is in the fortunate position of having around 20 people to choose from. As a testament to the selflessness of those volunteers, as many as 15 or 16 could turn up for a shout, even at night. Selecting the crew to go is something of a balancing act. There needs to be the skills and experience on board to deal with whatever they’re up against, but there is also the challenge of giving crew members experience and allowing them to put into practice what they’ve learnt from their training.

“Generally I’ll take the first six or seven who turn up as I don’t know who is coming in behind them and, if someone’s life is at risk, we don’t have the time to wait and see who else might turn up.”

The nature of some shouts does offer the luxury of extra time, which is invaluable for Patch to allow all his crew to go on shouts.

“If I know it’s a very simple job, no one’s life is at risk and the weather’s good I might hold on few minutes longer so I can give as many people as possible a chance of going on shouts. That’s how we learn, how we get the experience and keep our skills up to speed.”

With two lifeboats stationed at Penlee, they have the resources to deal with an array of shouts. The inshore Atlantic 85 rigid inflatable is extremely fast, very manoeuvrable and capable of operating in shallow waters, making it perfect for shouts in Mount’s Bay and around the coastline. With Newlyn being one of Britain’s biggest fishing ports and with the might of the Atlantic Ocean on their doorstep they’re also in need of something with a bit more beef to deal with the bigger seas and even bigger vessels. The Severn Class is the RNLI’s largest all-weather vessel, capable of standing up to the harshest weather the ocean can throw at it. Measuring more than seventeen metres in length and weighing in at more than forty tonnes she has a top speed of twenty-five knots and a range of 250 nautical miles.

The value of the Severn Class has been demonstrated on countless occasions, like in March last year when the Lady Alida, a 3,500-ton cargo vessel almost 90 metres in length, suffered engine failure a few miles off shore.

Patch takes up the story.

“She’d broken down a couple of miles off Gwennap Head and there was an onshore wind pushing her towards the rocks.”

With no tug available, the

Penlee lifeboat was launched at three in the morning to attach a tow line and take her back out to safer waters. Battling a strong south-westerly wind and big swell they were only able to make a speed of one knot. Sennen Cove lifeboat was launched to assist and, between them, they were able to tow the Lady Alida to a safe distance. Out of immediate danger, she dropped her anchors and the lifeboats made for home.

Arriving back a little after 6am there wasn’t even time for a cup of tea before it was reported the

Lady Alida was dragging her anchors and in danger of hitting the rocks before the tug could reach her. Relaunching, the two lifeboats, once again, attached a tow and took her back out to a safe distance and then stood by until the tug could arrive. By the time they arrived back in Newlyn they’d been at sea for more than eleven hours.

“That was a pretty difficult one because of the swell,” Patch explains. “We needed to get close enough to get a line on board without getting too close and damaging our boat. The size of her compared to us, if I’d got that wrong I’m risking the lives of the guys on board.”

Attaching a tow, transferring a crew member on to a vessel to assist or evacuating somebody on to the lifeboat are some of the most perilous tasks facing lifeboat crews. The extremely close proximity of the two vessels produces all manner of hazards, as Patch explains.

“You’ve got one boat pitching and rolling one way, the other boats doing the same thing but at a different time and if I get it wrong and go in too hard you can collide quite heavily. If you’ve got crew on the bow of the boat they can get knocked over the side or, worse still, fall between the two boats. When it’s poor weather and you’ve got twenty or thirty foot seas, it’s a pretty difficult thing to do and it’s the guys’ lives that are at risk if I don’t get it right. I’m not going to get injured where I am, it’s them. The apparent ease with which the tow is passed from the lifeboat to the Lady Alida – the footage can be found online – is a testament to the enormous skill of those involved and to the constant training they undertake in order to be ready for any challenge they’re faced with.

The fact he is coxswain of, arguably, the most famous lifeboat in the UK, certainly doesn’t go unnoticed. With all that’s gone before, and the place that Penlee holds in the public’s heart, he’s very much in the public eye.

“It puts me under a lot of pressure at times,” says Patch. “Everyone wants to know what Penlee are doing and we’re always affiliated with that one night. No one will ever forget that night, obviously, but even now, every time we do a shout our press officer will put a post up on social media and we get comments from all over the world so I’m very aware of what it carries to be a coxswain of a Penlee Lifeboat. Saying that though, the support is phenomenal and I’m very humbled by it, but it’s always at the back of my mind what happened to the Solomon Browne, which definitely keeps me grounded.”

I probably enjoy being on the sea more than I do being on land