Hoylake and West Kirby RNLI are inviting the public to step aboard their lifeboats and meet the volunteer crews while supporting the lifesaving charity’s local search and rescue service.
The ‘meet and greet’ day takes place on Saturday 3 September from 10:00am until 4:00pm at Hoylake Lifeboat Station. Visitors will have the chance to see up close Hoylake’s all-weather Shannon class lifeboat and hovercraft and West Kirby’s inshore IB1 lifeboat.
The stations’ launch and recovery vehicles will also be on display, including Hoylake’s Shannon Launch and Recovery System (SLARS) and West Kirby’s Hagglund BV206 launch vehicle, which is the only vehicle of its type based on station in the RNLI.
The two lifeboat stations’ volunteer crews will be showcasing how they work together with their specialist rescue equipment to save lives at sea and around the region’s coast.
More details will be announced closer to the event date.
Hoylake RNLI Coxswain Howie Owen said: “We’re so grateful to our incredible community for supporting their local lifeboat crews, who are always on call 24/7. Hoylake and West Kirby RNLI’s “meet and greet” day will be a fantastic opportunity for our supporters to see the lifesaving boats and kit which their donations help to fund.”
Howie added: “Although pandemic restrictions meant we couldn’t host our traditional Lifeboat Open Day in recent years, we’re thrilled to be opening our doors and welcoming our community back to meet the Hoylake and West Kirby RNLI volunteer crews at this new event. We hope to hold other fundraising events in the next year too.”
In 2021, RNLI lifeboats in the UK and Ireland launched 8,868 times, helping 12,903 people and saving 296 lives. But as a charity, the RNLI is reliant on voluntary donations to power its lifesaving work, which last year cost a total of £159.6 million.
