Geoff was born in Rustington and has lived in Littlehampton since 1965, he worked in the construction industry until seven years ago. He had vast experience at sea having had several fishing boats of his own making the RNLI a natural extension of his interests. His role as a deputy launching authority entailed him being on call day and night to take requests from the coastguard to launch the lifeboats to save lives at sea.

A party was held at the Littlehampton lifeboat station for Geoff where he received a service certificate to mark his retirement and in recognition of his time with the RNLI. Also the crew, shore crew and operational volunteers presented him with gifts of there own in appreciation of all the work and friendships he has achieved over the years.

Lifeboat operations manager Nick White commented ‘It’s hard to adequately describe how much we will miss Geoff. He has always been such a significant member of our team, totally dependable, always making himself available, and known to everyone we deal with locally.’

Lifeboat volunteers from Portsmouth RNLI rescue two fishermen as their 11m trawler sinks in front of them, two miles south of Langstone Harbour. After the two fishermen are safely transferred to the lifeboat, an RNLI crew member is forced to jump clear of the trawler just as it sinks beneath the water – he is then picked up by the Gosport Rescue team.

David Tupper and his wife Hilary came down to the boathouse on Sunday morning where they were given an extensive tour the station by the lifeboat operations manager Nick White. They met and chatted with the crew, shore crew, some of the fundraisers and the volunteer shop staff.  ’Blue Peter 1’ and the ‘Spirit of Juniper’ were then launched for their usual training session with three crew on each boat.

The High Sheriff and the remaining crew then walked down the riverfront for a special trip arranged by volunteer lifeboat crewman Nick Miller whose day job just happens to be Operations Manager of Action Boat. The boats, two 10.5 m twin 300 horsepower RIBs, run trips and excursions throughout the summer. Nick Miller said ‘Its great to watch the lifeboats launch but to truly appreciate what the lifeboats do you have to be out there.  Our season with Action Boats doesn’t start till 31 March so I thought it would be a great idea to take our guests out to sea and simulate a break down with the Lifeboats coming to our rescue and towing us in, not that we would expect that to happen, of course!’.

Our picture shows the High Sheriff and his wife aboard Action Boat with both lifeboats.

Since the modern day lifeboat station in Littlehampton opened in 1967, around 90 men and women have seved as crew.  Today there are 26 enrolled crew and trainees, and 7 shore crew.  Until now, 4 have served for more than 20 years and received the RNLI’s long service badge.

In November 1991 a 20 year old Ivan enrolled as crew for the Littlehampton lifeboat station, he became helm in 1997 as well as station mechanic in 2002. Along the way he also involved some family members, Ken Greer, Ivan’s father, joined as shore crew and went on to become visits co-ordinator and later, Michelle, Ivan’s wife also enrolled as shore crew.

The award for 20 years of service to the RNLI was given to Ivan by lifeboat operations manager and former crewmen Nick White.  Nick said ‘I have lost count of how many ‘shouts’ Ivan has been involved in over the years. The crew have to launch to rescue people and vessels in all kinds of conditions and Ivan’s dependability and calmness in a crisis is invaluable. He represents everything the RNLI stands for.’

Littlehampton’s volunteer lifeboat crew responded to a somewhat unusual incident at the weekend when they assisted a swan in distress after fishing equipment became lodged in its throat.

The crew of the lifeboat station were out on their usual Sunday morning exercise when they came across the large white swan in distress on the River Arun. And on closer inspection the bird had apparently swallowed some fishing bait, which the crew suspected had a hook attached, therefore lodging in its throat.

Given the bird was in some distress, the lifeboat crew wasted no time in attempting to rescue him from the muddy banks of the river, eventually getting him back to shore and handing him over to the RSPCA.

Volunteer lifeboat crew member Jon Maidment explained more: ‘It was a pretty standard Sunday exercise; we launched both inshore lifeboats and as it was a low water exercise we planned to stay in the mouth of the River Arun and not go out to sea. That’s when we saw the swan.

‘He was clearly in major distress, and when we got up for closer inspection we realised he had swallowed part of a dogtail fish that somebody had obviously cut in half in order to fashion into fishing bait. Given the amount of blood and the fact something was lodged in his throat, we assumed the fish was attached to a sharp hook which had gotten lodged.

‘We decided to try and get him to shore but he gave us a real run-around – clearly not wanting to be caught.’

Jon said the swan, whom they affectionately nicknamed ‘Sammy’, swam across the river to the moorings of Arun Yacht Club, and into the very deep mud which had been exposed by the low tide. Crew members from both inshore lifeboats tried to pin the bird down in the mud, but Jon said it was very difficult as Sammy was clearly distressed. The crew were absolutely, totally covered in mud,’ said Jon, ‘filthy dirty. But, undeterred, they eventually got hold of the bird and brought it in.

‘Fortunately, someone working at the riverside restaurant, the Look and Sea Centre, keeps a ‘swan bag’ on the premises, because they’re no stranger to seeing swans in distress round here. It’s basically a bag with handles and Velcro straps that allows you to wrap a large bird or duck in, folding in their wings to stop them harming themselves. We put the bird in, taped him up, and handed him to a local RSPCA inspector from Brighton, whom someone at the station had made contact with.’

Since Sunday, the RNLI lifeboat crew have been informed that despite the injuries to the throat and the distress he was in, Sammy survived Sunday night and underwent surgery on Monday afternoon to remove the foreign object from his throat and repair the wound. It turned out that a long length of tangled fishing line had become lodged, not a hook as originally suspected.

Thankfully, the crew have since learned Sammy is to be handed over to an animal charity while he recuperates, and should be released back into the wild within a matter of days.

Jon said: ‘As lifeboat crews we’re trained to save lives at sea. Usually its humans we assist but there was no way we were going to leave an animal in distress. Thanks to our first class training, and thanks to the sympathetic animal lover at the local restaurant who keeps the swan bag handy, we were able to bring about a happy ending for our little Sammy. Everyone at Littlehampton RNLI wishes him a speedy recovery.’

Spirit of Juniper’ the station’s D-class lifeboat was driven into the High Street accompanied by the crew, shore crew, fundraisers, family members and even Amber the dog.

Nick White lifeboat operations manager said, ‘Despite the wintry weather conditions the people of Littlehampton were warm, friendly and as always generous with their donations. A big thank you to the girls in Gregg’s who kept us all warm by donating tea and coffee’.

As well as the collection in town there was a steady flow of visitors to the lifeboat station, all in all a good day. The money raised was an amazing £1,167.21

‘Spirit of Juniper’ the station’s D-Class will be in the High Street with yet more of the boys and girls of the crew.

Littlehampton Lifeboat Station welcomes local charter boat skipper to their team of volunteers.

Recently retired commercial skipper, Ivan Warren has worked off the Sussex coast for much of his life.  In his early years running a fishing boat from Lancing beach, working out of Littlehampton Harbour since the 1970s and operating his charter boat ‘Michelle Mary’ for the last 20 years.  He is well known amongst harbour users, and many who have chartered Ivan and his boat for angling or diving.

His role as a deputy launching authority is to respond to a request, usually from the coastguard, that the lifeboat should launch on service.  The launching authority will consider the task and the conditions, and takes responsibility for the lifeboat putting to sea.  He then co-ordinates the service from the boathouse and completes the return which forms part of the RNLI’s permanent record of the services performed by lifeboats everywhere.

Littlehampton Lifeboat operations manager Nick White explains: ‘We have a small team of DLAs, who, together with myself, cover on a rota basis to make sure that Littlehampton’s two lifeboats can respond to an emergency whenever they are required.  Everyone at our lifeboat station, like most other lifeboat stations, is a volunteer, and although we are called out on average just under twice a week, we must maintain constant availability, we can be called out anytime, day or night’.

Nick went on to mention that he is keen to recruit another launching authority. ‘ The need to maintain availability is essential, and we would be keen to hear from anyone who is largely available during the working week as well as overnight sometimes, also someone who lives fairly close to the harbour, and who has a strong boating background – either professionally or through their leisure pastime’.

Our picture shows Ivan (left) with Nick White next to ‘Blue Peter 1′

The first came after a 999 call to the coastguard was made reporting a person seen entering the River Arun, close to the road bridge. ‘Blue Peter 1’ was launched at 02:35 with crewmen Andy Harris, Ollie Clark and Andy Hicks, who began a search of the area.

A second 999 call was made minutes later reporting a person seen in distress off Bognor Regis pier. Littlehampton’s ‘Spirit of Juniper’ was launched at 02:46 with crewmen Ross Bowman, Ollie Lamb and on his first shout, Richard Winstanley.

The decision was made to send the D-class lifeboat up river to take over the search and for the Atlantic 75 to go to Bognor Regis. However the shout was cancelled before lifeboat left the harbour as it was discovered that although the potential casualty was beyond the pier, due to low tide they were not actually in the water and could be reached from the shore.

The Littlehampton Atlantic 75 rejoined the D-Class up river and after a thorough search was stood down, both boats were refuelled and ready for service by 03:55.