Emotional day as Filey's all-weather lifeboat stops being operational
Filey RNLI is losing its all-weather lifeboat that has been in action at the station for nearly 220 years today.
Last updated 29th Apr 2021
It is an emotional day for Filey RNLI as it loses one of its big boats that has been in action for nearly 220 years.
The all-weather lifeboat will stop being operational from today.
It is going to be replaced by a new in-shore rapid response boat instead called the Atlantic 85.
It means big call-outs that require an all-weather lifeboat will have to come from Scarborough or Bridlington instead.
John Ward is from Filey RNLI and said:
"The crew at going to take the boat down to Lowestoft in Suffolk and from there it'll be lifted out and we expect it to be taken to the RNLI headquarters in Poole, and it'll be used perhaps for a relief lifeboat the time being. We're not 100% sure what's going to happen to it in the future.
"There's been a big lifeboat in Filey, an all-weather boat, since 1804 so for 217 years. In the 1870s it was alleged that the lifeboat at Filey had saved more lives than any other lifeboat in the whole of Great Britain.
"It's quite a change really from an all-weather boat to an in-shore boat but times change, casualties change, you need to be faster in response to incidents and that's certainly what the Atlantic 85 will be able to do, between 40-45 miles per hour so it can be all over quite quickly.
"The crew at sad in many ways. I mean some of the crew have grown up with the boat and a lot of the crew have been on the all-weather boat for over 30 years and for some, this will be their last chance to go in the boat because the retirement age is 55, so there's nostalgia.
"I think they're also aware that times have changed and we've got to move forward and do what we can. It's a younger person boat there's no doubt about that and at the end of the day, it's about saving lives at sea. If we can do it off Filey quicker than we could before then that must be better for those people that we're going to rescue.
"Currently we have a full time coxswain mechanic but as from tomorrow Filey Lifeboat Station will be volunteer only. It means that Neil Cammish, who's our current coxswain mechanic, his contract will end. It was always only a temporary contract and he's going off to do other things."
Here is a video of the departure of the ALB thanks to Dougie Ward: