Our mission as a lifesaving service is the preservation of life and the promotion of safety at sea on the foreshore or in inland waters.
Our appeal
We are small operation but ambitious to preserve our 50+ year history as a vital lifesaving community asset.
We urgently need to develop our lifeboat house to prepare for the purchase of a replacement lifeboat in 2027, and crucially, to update the current cramped and inflexible space. Our vision is a flexible, professional and efficient boathouse to accommodate our boat and vehicle assets.
This is a development to future proof our service for the next 50 years.
Who we are and what we do
PLIRB is a voluntary lifeboat service, serving the coastline and inland waters between Hastings and Rye in East Sussex, UK.
We are NOT affiliated to RNLI or HM Coastguard but work in close collaboration with their local units all emergency services.
As one of approximately 75 independent lifeboat stations across the UK, we are entirely self-managed and self-funded. We receive no public or centralised funding – we raise funds through donations, fundraising activities and grant applications. All operational costs, development projects and boat/vehicle assets we have to work hard to secure funds for. Every volunteer, whatever their primary role, gets involved in fundraising.
We operate 24/7 and 365 days a year. We are formally tasked by UK Coastguard in the same way as RNLI services. We are extremely proud that our average launch time is 15-20 minutes from the time of paging.
We operate two RIB boats, a 5.4metre Zodiac Pro and a 3.8metre Arancia surf RIB. These are the ideal assets to cope with the varied and hazardous coastline – we can navigate close under the cliffs, launch in low and high tide and cover the entire Rye Bay stretch.
We train twice a week, all year round. All volunteers receive a rigorous training programme and have the opportunity to undertake professional qualifications (radio license, powerboat courses, sea survival, casualty care and first aid).
Our taskings are varied and often complex, multi-agency incidents. They include:
- Attending Mayday calls to vessels in critical danger.
- Assisting casualty vessels in difficulty – anything from pleasure crafts suffering engine failure, motor boats running low on fuel or lost in poor visibility or yachts taking on water.
- Assisting swimmers, paddle-boarders or kayakers in difficulty.
- Searching for missing (often vulnerable) persons.
- Searching for missing children.
- Locating and retrieving hazardous debris.
- Assisting walkers in difficulty in soft mud at low tide.
- Providing assistance to walkers marooned by the tide under the cliffs.
- Providing medical or casualty care – at sea or on the shore.
- Providing rescue support to inland villages suffering from extreme flooding.
As a team we strive to be a community asset. Our community support activities include:
- Supporting local events – we attend many community events, whether providing the BBQ, first aid or demonstrating our boat and encouraging youth involvement.
- Hosting school/youth groups for boathouse and facility tours, beach safety and education sessions. We also give presentations to other local groups.
- Helping keep the local area clean and hazard free – this includes moving hazardous or large objects from the beach; clearing fallen trees or debris after bad weather; placing the safety marker buoys to ensure the safety of swimmers and water users.
- Supporting local organisations with beach cleans – our volunteers collect and arrange disposal of the bags of waste
- Supporting the release of seals in the area.
- Local maintenance and emergency support.
- Providing ash scattering services at sea and installing commemorative benches.
Project plan and timescale
The boathouse development has two purposes:
- To prepare for the future purchase of a slightly larger lifeboat. Our current boat must be replaced in 2027/2028. Due to the nature of our taskings, the new boat will be a few inches larger - but this won't fit in our existing boathouse.
- To provide improved flexible space to store launch both boats together with independent launch abilities.