Penlee's volunteer RNLI lifeboat crew are putting some power behind their peddles at the end of the month, cycling 125 miles from Plymouth along the coast road back to the lifeboat station in Newlyn to raise funds for the charity's annual SOS Day 2012.
Starting on SOS Day (Friday 27 January) the five strong team made up of; Coxswain Patrick Harvey, volunteer crew Sam Gillchrist, Dan Sell and David Raymond and Deputy Launching Authority Graham Henderson, will set off from Plymouth RNLI lifeboat station at 9.30am and travel across the Torpoint ferry to Cornwall. From Torpoint they will tackle the gruelling Cornish coastal road back to Newlyn, calling in at Looe, Fowey, Falmouth and The Lizard RNLI lifeboat stations on route to say hello to their lifesaving colleagues.
The money raised through the challenge will go towards the
provision of new state of the art lifejackets for the
station's all weather and inshore lifeboat crews. The two
brand new types of lifejacket were designed over a three
year period and in close consultation with the RNLI's
volunteers. They are made using the latest material
technology to meet the charity's current operational search
and rescue requirements.
The manufacturer's recommended price for the new
all-weather lifejacket is £350 and for the inshore
lifejacket is £330. As a result of securing a discount on
these costs it will cost around £7,000 to equip the crew of
both lifeboats at Penlee.
Patrick Harvey, RNLI Coxswain at Penlee and one of the five
riders says;
'We've given ourselves three days to complete the mission
which works out at about 42 miles a day. We're all training
hard, but it's a big a step up from the 50 mile route round
the west of Cornwall we completed for SOS Day 2011. We're
expecting it to be a pretty tough course along the exposed,
hilly, coastal road and are hoping the weather will be kind
to us!
In 2011 we raised nearly £4,400 which was amazing, but with
the extra distance under our belts we're hopeful about
hitting £7,000. Please sponsor us at or drop into the
station.'
While five of the crew are battling the hills, the rest
will be doing a Soap Our Saloons car wash and
serving up bacon rolls from the Sizzle Our
Sausages BBQ at the lifeboat station between 10am and
3pm on Saturday 28 January.