Islanders are asked to help new lifeboat (From Gazette)

Islanders are asked to help new lifeboat

8:00pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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AN APPEAL has been launched to fund a bigger and better lifeboat for Mersea Island.

West Mersea Lifeboat Station is urging residents to help it buy a replacement boat by 2014.

Most of the cost of the new boat will come from a legacy left to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

The lifeboat station needs to raise £35,000 towards the cost over the next four years.

The current B class Atlantic 75 lifeboat has been in service since 2001.

Lifeboat crews hope to swap it for a bigger vessel equipped with radar.

Jeremy Dumas, lifeboat operations manager, said: “It’s a fairly routine replacement.

“By 2014, she will be due to move on.

“The new boat will be more capable. As it is radar equipped, it will be very useful for us in the dark.

“We already know there is a lot of support for the lifeboat in the community. We hope more people can get behind us with this campaign.”

The crews are being supported by the Mersea and District Lifeboat Guild, which plans to hold several extra events in its fundraising calendar in aid of the new boat and its future maintenance.

It also wants to use the collecting box at the Coast Road lifeboat station specifically for the appeal.

Judith Kirkby, guild spokesman, said: “The guild raise money for the RNLI as a whole.

“A lot of people in the community often ask us where the money goes to.

“It will be nice to be able to say we have a specific fund which goes towards the Mersea lifeboat.”