Bowled over

Life remains busy and I am sadly very behind on posts here. The annual guild bowling extravaganza has finished and Colin Brixton was kind enough to send some photos over.

Knowing such a little about the sport of bowling (thought I have heard that the definition of a sport is any activity which can't be undertaken while smoking a pipe so perhaps bowling isn't a sport but rather an activity?) I feel unable to comment on what is shown here.

nevertheless, the competition has clearly been fiercely competed and, as importantly, enjoyed by all who have taken part in it. I understand it has also raised a significant sum of money.


Anyway, no sooner is this over and done with than Robin informs me that the summer croquet competition is about to begin:

John,

I've just put to bed our fundraising at The Indoor Bowls Club on Wednesday 17th only to be approached to start organising our summer event of The Croquet Competition which runs for several months commencing early Summer. We have to start advising prospective teams etc in March, in the meantime I have been busy distributing Posters advertising The Fairtrade Tea Party @ Swanage URC Hall. The Guild are organising the Refreshments & there will be a RNLI Souvenir Stall. The event will be held from 2.30 - 4.30 on Saturday March 6th, lets hope it's well supported & we generate some more funds for The Lifeboats!

Robin

I hope that any local reading this will feel able to support these events...

Every boat should have one of these...

It is normal practise to limit the number of holes passing through the hull of a seagoing vessel. However, Mersey class lifeboats have at least two more than the majority of craft. The red hatch cover in this photo shows our port-side 'freeing trunk' which is in the aftermost compartment of the boat called the 'tiller flat'. Even while at sea it is perfectly safe to remove this hatch cover as the trunk below extends above the waterline of the boat and so very little water comes in. The idea is that should a rope get wrapped around the propeller or propeller shaft and not be cut free by the shaft rope-cutter then it is possible to open the hatch and use a large knife (also stored in the tiller flat) to cut the rope free.

In practice we have never had to do this, but we do deal with a great number of boats which have got ropes, nets or plastic bags wrapped around props and rudders. Perhaps if all vessels had a freeing trunk or other such precaution we might have fewer shouts to attend?

Testing times

Apologies for the lack of posts but I've had all sorts of trouble with my broadband at home. It's all fixed now, thanks BT engineers.

One of the good things about being so close to RNLI HQ in Poole is that we get to test and evaluate all sorts of new bits of kit. Some good, some not so good. Last week we were given a new camera to trial. It's a Casio Exilim EX-G1 and it seems pretty good so far. Casio have given the RNLI some cameras to trial and we've been asked to send in feedback by the end of March.

I had a look at the pictures taken on last Sunday's exercise and there were some quite good ones (and the usual very blurry out of focus ones). This one was my favourite though.

We are also currently trialling a new Man Overboard Recovery system called a Hypo Hoist. The week before last we were testing an anchor that could possibly be fitted to the replacement for the Mersey, FCB2 (Fast Carriage Boat 2).

Total

The totals for the SOS day are now in. Yesterday Robin sent this message around to us all. Good news!

Hi Dave

Here are the Totals for SOS Day:

Co-Op Bucket Collection £220.94
Soup & Sweet at Roman Catholic Hall £330.05
Soap Our Saloons £501.67

The Ship Inn Langton Matravers received donations from diners etc at the weekend amounting to £99.50 , this helped bolster our Grand Total to £1,152.16

This is a great result, only possible with the hard work so many gave to our fundraising for SOS Day and to the people of Swanage who supported our various events & gave generously.

Robin

On another note, I will be spending the next week in the North of the county but my mind will be on other things so Dave will be keeping things going here in my absence...cheers mate, look forward to reading about it!

SOS

So Friday was the annual RNLI SOS day. Over here in Swanage we had a collection outside the CO-OP on the Friday which raised £224 which got us off to a great start.



Car washing at Jewsons on the Saturday was once again a popular draw and raised over£500.



Sam was busy.



Even Jon Deer was spotted washing cars (more than could be said for me)!



For Dan, car washing junkie, it was his idea of heaven.



And then in the Catholic hall was the Soup and Sweet event which was also very well attended (though I've forgotten exactly how much was raised I do know it was several hundred and brought our total to very close to £1000)



Of course, the Glorious one was there holding the fort as ever!

Thanks for your support everyone...