|
| |
On September 19th 1983 Graham Collins of
Birling Gap Hotel was alerted when a man got into difficulties in the sea at
Birling Gap. Graham fought his way through the worsening sea conditions (at no
small risk to himself) and affected a rescue.
For this act he received The Royal Humane Society’s Testimonial on Vellum.
It was this event that prompted the idea of a Safety Boat for Birling Gap. He
called a meeting of interested local people, and in December 1983 the Birling
Gap Safety Boat Association was formed with an immediate appeal for funds.
The response was tremendous. Almost immediately, it seemed, we were offered a
suitable boat & engine by East Dean Motors until we could purchase our own.
This was closely followed by Mr Jack Collins of the Birling Gap Hotel offering
us the use of a suitable building close to the cliff edge for a boathouse.
Great feats of engineering were wrought in the boathouse, large sections of
assorted timber & iron, welding gear & beer were fed in and within a short time
we had a launch and recovery gantry to enable the boat to be lowered over the
cliff edge.
Throughout the winter of 1983/84, we held jumble sales, coffee mornings, dances,
raffles, toy fairs and Sales of Christmas cards to raise funds. We raised enough
money to buy essential gear and get started.
The boat was first put into service Easter 1984 while the crew continued to
practice their new role on Wednesday evenings.
Expert advice and tuition was readily forthcoming from local Lifeboats, regular
Coastguards, Pett Level Rescue, St John Ambulance and many others.
The boat and crew were officially blessed at our Open Day and Fete on September
1st 1984 and was such a success we decided to hold it annually
Fund raising continued throughout the winter months and the crew received
training in First Aid and radiotelephony.
One incident we covered received much attention in Local and National Press: On
Friday June 7th 1985, Guinness the Springer Spaniel chased a gull over the 220
ft cliff at Belle Tout. The boat was launched to recover him, still alive and
after some attention from a vet seemed to be suffering no great ill effects.
Incidents that turn out like that give us an enormous amount of satisfaction.
However, much of what we do does go unnoticed:
Children on lilos and small inflatables are recovered after being blown out to
sea, (one of the biggest problems at Birling Gap when we have off shore winds).
We help swimmers in trouble.
We recover persons cut off by the tide along the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head,
because they have failed to check the tide times.
We assist the Coastguard and Lifeboat and searches for missing persons.
We give First Aid to visitors (dogs as well) that slip on the rocks etc.
We have assisted windsurfers in trouble, water skiers, canoeists, broken down
fishing boats, divers, the list goes on.
We advise children and parents of the dangers of some swimming aids.
We assisted as Safety Boat for the film She Devils, filmed at Belle Tout.
In the film Piece of Cake some of the crew even took part and we had our boat
standing by on a number of occasions during the filming.
Assisted in the filming of a St Bruno advert and later had to launch to rescue
the film unit from Beachy Head Lighthouse.
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was another film we were involved in, acting as a
Safety Boat for the part that was filmed at Cuckmere
Involvement in the filming boosted our funds considerably, enabling us to
purchase our own engine, and with the collections made by the late Miss Florence
Whittaker of Birling Gap Hotel we were able to buy our own boat.
A cliff fall in 1987, right in front of our boathouse, took a large lump of land
almost back to the doors.
This meant more frantic fund raising to build a new Boathouse away from the
cliff edge.
We placed a deposit for a cedar-clad building that had been offered by one of
our members at a very reasonable cost.
With input from members with various skills we started the digging out of the
foundations in October 1988 and
completed the building in April 1989
On 13th August 1989 three adults and three children got in to difficulties and
would have drowned had it not been for the quick action of three crewmembers.
For this they received Royal Humane Society Awards
We continue to
fund-raise to cover the annual running cost, with a Bar-B-Que, Christmas Raffle
and collecting tins. We value the tremendous support of local people and
businesses.
Richard Worsell
|
