Tenby’s new inshore RNLI lifeboat proved her worth just days after arriving at her new home. The newly designed D-class which is named after the late Mrs Georgina Taylor arrived on station on 8 December 2009 and was called out on her first rescue mission on Sunday (13 December).
The newly designed D- Class lifeboat is now faster with a top speed of 25 knots and carries updated navigation and rescue equipment. The lifeboat has been named after Mrs Taylor who personally donated over £10,000 towards the build cost. Mrs Taylor also funded the two previous inshore lifeboats The Stanley Taylor in 1993 and Georgina Stanley Taylor in 2001 memory of her husband.
The RNLI have received a further £2,000 towards the build cost that has been donated locally in lieu of flowers in memory of Peter Lowe who died in October and £3,000 from various other local donations.
The lifeboat was launched at 2.14pm after a volunteer RNLI crew member spotted a teenage boy lying motionless in the sea just below the Paragon on the south side of Tenby.
The lifeboat was launched and on scene within minutes and the volunteer RNLI crew found the casualty had been recovered to an inaccessible part of the beach by two friends that had entered the water with him. A member of the Tenby Coastguard rescue team who had just arrived assisted them with first aid.
All three boys, who were on holiday were recovered to the lifeboat and treated for hypothermia, one barely conscious was also given oxygen therapy. The lifeboat returned to the harbour where the casualty in the poorest condition was air lifted to hospital via the air ambulance and the other two were treated by crew and paramedics then evacuated by land ambulance.
