Of the 43 lifeboat stations based in Ireland, nine are in Northern Ireland. Of these the busiest were Bangor, which launched 39 times, rescuing 37 people; and Portaferry in county Down, who rescued 50 people and launched 25 times.
Commenting on the annual statistics RNLI Deputy Divisional Inspector Gareth Morrison says:
‘These figures show once again how busy Irish lifeboat crews are and how important the service is that these brave volunteers provide in their communities. With the poor weather last year we expected to see a drop in the number of callouts but this has proven only slight. A close examination of the type of callouts our crew respond to shows the three most common calls for help are machinery failure/damage; stranded vessels/people; and medical emergencies at sea or on islands. Of the types of incidents we attend to there has been a marked decrease in callouts to fishing vessels – down 39 on the previous year. Callouts to power pleasure craft remain high, but are slightly down on the previous year to 237, while there has been an increase in callouts to sail pleasure craft – up 11 on 2007 to 168 last year.’
Now the charity is calling on the public to respond to its own call for help by supporting RNLI SOS day. RNLI Fundraising and Communications Manager Anna Classon says by raising funds the public will be giving their support to their volunteer lifeboat crews and will ensure that they can go on saving lives at sea during the turbulent economic climate:
‘There are events taking place all over the country in aid of RNLI SOS day. This is the fifth year we have held SOS day and it continues to go from strength to strength. Our target is to raise €100,000 and we are looking on course to exceed it. Some of the events taking place include Sizzle Our Sausages with our lifeboat crew in the Galway lifeboat station, a dance-a-thon called Swing Out Skerries in Dublin and a Shower Our School-teacher in Ballina. We are encouraging people not only to give a donation, no matter how small to the lifeboats, but to have fun doing it.’”
To take part in RNLI SOS Day and for inspiring fundraising ideas or to make a donation people are asked to log onto www.rnli.ie/sos or call 1800 789 589.