Surfer rescued from stormy seas

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Re: Surfer rescued from stormy seas

Postby History » Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:27 am

SBpete wrote:Surfers, including families coming down in summer, bring good business to Kintyre and I feel that we are reaching a point when the provision of safety cover has to at least be looked at.


This incident happened in the middle of winter not the summer. To combat incidents like the one we are discussing are you suggesting that the Council pay for some sort of rescue service all year round just for surfers?

I recall that the benefits of surfers to the area was discussed somewhere else on here a while back and no one was able to specify the monetary benefits to the area. I'm not saying there are none, I don't know. Could you define "bringing business to kintyre"

Anytime I pass parked vehicles with surfers around about. The vehicles seem to be camper or transit vans that appears as though they live in them.

I know one windsurfer who parks over near the shipyard on a corner on a road with no pavement and across the road is a turning area that he sometimes obstructs for larger vehicles to turn. I think that is selfish and irresponsible. I shouldn't need to go out into the middle of the road to pass this vehicle but it happens. Bit of a rant off topic there. :roll: :oops:
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Re: Surfer rescued from stormy seas

Postby mrn » Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:55 am

I've never had surfers stay with us, they appear to camp or as previously mentioned stay in vans.
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Re: Surfer rescued from stormy seas

Postby SBpete » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:36 pm

I've never had surfers stay with us, they appear to camp or as previously mentioned stay in vans.


We have had many people in the shop hiring surfboards, who are staying in B&Bs all over kintyre. The largest part of our business is selling or hiring kids wetsuits, boogie boards and surfboard to young families who are staying in caravans, the camp sites, and B&B's. Of course there are the hardcore surfers who camp at the beach, but they are not the only ones.

This incident happened in the middle of winter not the summer. To combat incidents like the one we are discussing are you suggesting that the Council pay for some sort of rescue service all year round just for surfers?


Does it matter what time of year someone dies? and this is the risk with the increase number of users in the water.
The R.N.L.I are expanding their beach lifeguard program and I think that Kintyre should be pushing to be included. I guess that as well as watching the beach during busy periods (weekends), the life guard would also work with local schools and run water safety programs throughout the year.

I know one windsurfer who parks over near the shipyard on a corner on a road with no pavement and across the road is a turning area that he sometimes obstructs for larger vehicles to turn. I think that is selfish and irresponsible. I shouldn't need to go out into the middle of the road to pass this vehicle but it happens.


Let me know next time I'm there and I will move the van to let you passed. :roll:
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Re: Surfer rescued from stormy seas

Postby LowMac » Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:58 pm

Tonight, Friday 19th March, Channel 5 - 8pm - Highland Emergency. The programme tonight is out the rescue of a surfer off Machrihanish, could this be the same surfer!!
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Re: Surfer rescued from stormy seas

Postby lighterman » Thu Oct 30, 2014 1:23 am

I well remember this "shout". It's hard to believe that it's almost 6 years ago! I was on the LifeBoat crew for this one and I can attest that it was very "lively" weather indeed!
Reading between the lines I'd guess it might have been my poor wife that Ags was writing about who was so anxious about us putting to sea in those conditions. Certainly I remember getting a comprehensive "counselling" session when I got home haha!
If you want to know what it was like, here's a wee flavour............

I was trying to write some notes when we took a particularly hard knock. The pencil flew out of my hand and vanished, so I borrowed another from the Navigator sitting in front of me and carried on. Only when we were back in the town and refuelling did I find the lost pencil. It had bounced so hard off the deckhead above me that it had shot down the back of shirt and stuck half an inch into the skin of my back.

I well remember every face onboard that afternoon. The Navigator is now a full-time Coxswain at another station and all but one of us are still in the service. The duty Cox'n gave cool, confident leadership and the man on the helm did some of the best boat-driving I have ever witnessed. I won't name them to spare their blushes! All of us aboard that day were volunteers. We don't get paid, but what we do get is training that is the envy of the world.

I'd also like to state, as I told the Good Lady at the time, that the Severn class LifeBoat is one of the safest vessels ever to be set afloat. She is immensely strong and seaworthy and hugely powerful and I have the utmost faith in our boat. Really; nothing comes close. That we have this fantastic asset in Campbeltown is entirely down to you and people like you - the Great British Public who voluntarily fund the service and have done since 1824 (slightly before my time, ahem)! I would like to record my personal thanks for your support. And I pledge that I will never refuse to put to sea with the boat because of weather conditions, and I don't know a lifeboatman who would. She is called an All Weather LifeBoat for a reason

There was considerable discussion of the cost of the operation to recover this young man. It's true the costs were significant. I dread to think of the operating cost of Rescue 177, the Royal Navy helicopter from HMS Gannet at Prestwick which actually found and recovered the surfer before we could get on-scene, but because of her massively powerful engines the Severn class can burn a lot of fuel. 120 gallons per hour at full power. To say nothing of the near 2 million pounds she cost to build and equip. But think of it this way. A young life with who knows what potential ahead was saved. I like to think it was money well spent.

One reason I'm musing on this all this time later is that to date nothing I know of has been done to make Machrihanish bay safer for surfies. There's the odd life-ring here and there - usually in poor condition or even vandalised, but lifeguards or a rescue PWC would have been utterly useless on that occasion. They simply would not have been able to survive the conditions. It remains for the surfies to make their educated judgment about their safety for themselves. Usually they get it right! We have just seen this week the tragic news of three people losing their lives in surf on the South Coast, on a beach that has seasonal RNLI Lifeguards. Should every beach in the country be guarded every day through the year? It's just not practical. Better to educate people to make the right decisions so they don't endanger themselves or those whose task it is to try to get them out of trouble.

Anyhoo.............thanks for your patience.
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Re: Surfer rescued from stormy seas

Postby LANDROVER ROGER » Thu Oct 30, 2014 7:42 am

Superb post Lighterman.Thank you.
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Re: Surfer rescued from stormy seas

Postby Shona » Thu Oct 30, 2014 9:34 am

Totally agree, Roger.
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Re: Surfer rescued from stormy seas

Postby lighterman » Thu Oct 30, 2014 12:39 pm

Thanks for reading. Slightly off-topic, but may I just make a correction to my previous? I have been talking about lifeboatmen here, but I should say that some of the best, most dependable and gutsiest lifeboat crew I have known are women.
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