Why is a new boathouse needed?
The Trent all weather lifeboat (ALB), from its
present mooring near Exmouth Dock, cannot cross the sand bar at the
mouth of the River Exe at low water spring tides. This means its
capacity to save lives in the Exe estuary is impaired for a three-hour
period around low water on an average of 8 days per month. The ALB
crew accommodation and office are in a pair of cramped portacabins next
to the Harbour.
The D class inshore lifeboat (ILB) is housed in the old,
1903 boathouse on Queen's Drive, 3/4 mile away from the ALB base. The split site makes makes
operational coordination, training, teamwork and communication much more
time consuming than it need be. It is especially difficult during
the busy summer season, wasting valuable rescue time - it only takes
between 20 and 30 minutes to die of hypothermia, or 5 minutes to drown
if you are not wearing a lifejacket.
To address all the above and many other related
shortcomings, it is proposed to build a new boathouse to house both the
ILB and a new, carriage-launched ALB.
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Trent
Class on its mooring, near low water |