Devon & Cornwall - Day 6

Today we visited three stations along the north Cornwall coast, Newquay, St. Agnes and St. Ives.

Newquay Lifeboat Station

We had made arrangements with Lifeboat Operations Manager, Gareth, to meet at the station at 10:00am. Arriving at the harbour a little early we visited the sailing club café and had a lovely bacon Roll and a cup of tea.

Gareth and Brian met us at the station and gave us a very interesting tour and history of the station dating back to 1860. Originally located in the centre of town where boats would be taken to one of the beaches to be launched. This was replaced in 1899 by a boathouse and the steepest slipways in the country at Towan Head. This closed in 1934 but was opened for the War effort between 1940 and 1945. The current station was built in the harbour in 1994 and houses two inshore lifeboats and launch vehicles as well as the crew facilities and shop.

Newquay have an Atlantic 85, Uncle Johnny (B-936) and a D Class, Enid Mary (D-773) arriving on station in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Both are launched via the harbour slipway.

After the obligatory photos as evidence of our visit and a social media photo with LOM Gareth, we wished them well and headed to our next station, St Agnes.

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St Agnes Lifeboat Station

St Agnes is a picturesque village with a stunning beach. The sun was out and we found a lovely warm seat to eat a sandwich before our visit. The coastline is spectacular and is fame for being the filming location of much of the Poldark series.

The lifeboat station is in two parts and sits on a steep street leading to the bay. The boat house is nearer to the beach and is in two parts due to its size. Their D-Class, Xkalibur (D-787) is housed in one part and the launch tractor in another. The crew facilities were a little further up the hill in a converted house. On arrival we met with crew member Dan and regional lifesaving officer Steven. They showed us around both parts of the station and the boat.

The station was opened in 1968 and between than and 2015 the boats were funded by the Blue Peter appeal. They were named Blue Peter IV being the fourth station to be funded by the programme. The station was initially on service during the summer but in 1996 it was placed on year round service.

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St Ives Lifeboat Station

Our final visit of the day was to St Ives, another stunning town with a beautiful harbour area which was busy with tourists. On arrival at the station they were hosting a large school visit. We visited the shop and had a long chat with the lovely volunteers whilst we waited for the visit to finish. The children ended their visit with a song outside the front of the station for the crew which was lovely to watch. 

We met with Coxwain Jake and visits officer Paul as well as crew members Emma and Andy. Jake and Paul showed us around their impressive station housing a Shannon Class and a D-Class lifeboat. The Station was opened in 1849 and after  closing in 1860 was taken over by the RNLI. The station had several locations around the town until the current boathouse was opened in 1993 for the Mersey class and D-Class boats before being extended in 2015 to house their new Shannon Class boat.

Paul recalled a couple of notable tragic incidents in 1938 and 1939 when two lifeboats capsized. In 1938 five rescued casualties drowned but the 9 crew managed to get ashore. The following year the replacement lifeboat also capsized with the loss of seven of the eight crew members.

Today, St Ives have a Shannon Class, Nora Stacura (13-11) on station in 2015 and a D-Class, Donald Dean (D-803) on station in 2016.

A fascinating visit and our thanks to everyone that met us during a busy day.

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Sennen Cove - The Launch

For the first time in the week the weather took a turn for the worse as we headed back to Sennen Cove to watch their exercise launch of both Lifeboats.

Before heading to the station we had a lovely portion of fish and chips and watched the rain come down heavy.

The station shop door was open and we headed inside out of the rain. Coxwain Nick knocked on the crew room window and ushered us upstairs where a lovely cup of tea was served. We sat with the ever increasing crew and listened to their briefing and training schedule before heading down to the beach to watch the launch. Thank you to Nick for allowing us to meet all the crew and join the briefing.

Both the Tamar and D-Class were launched and thankfully the rain stopped just enough to allow us to film the action. A great experience.