Tuesday 20 October 2009

John Lawson Reay's experience?

http://www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/views-blogs/readers-letters/2009/10/15/i-am-qualified-to-talk-about-llandudno-lifeboat-location-55243-24929231/

Having read Jon Lawson Reay's letter in the weekly news this week (Link above), i am just wondering what experience he actually has.

John Lawson Reay says;

My experience, and things have not changed very much in 45 years, was for four years as a shore crew member of the lifeboat.

45 years ago things were a hell of a lot different, and 4 years as a shore crew member isn't what i call a lot of experience.

I would like to ask John Lawson Reay how many launches he was actually there for?
What did he do when he was at the launches?

The lifeboats from 45 years ago were the Annie Ronald and Isabella Forrest 1959 - 1964 http://www.llandudnolifeboat.org.uk/wpimages/wp5c30ac8d.png

and the the Lilly Wainwright 1964 - 1990
http://www.llandudnolifeboat.org.uk/wpimages/wpd6ebc399.png

Information gained from http://www.llandudnolifeboat.org.uk/index.html

Lifeboats of the past did their job very well, but technology moves on and things change, and so do lifeboats and lifeboat stations. The crew need better boats to keep them safer and new technology helps in the location of boats that are in danger.

I have been wondering a few things, John Lawson Reay is a photographer, i have been told, and I am wondering;

Did John Lawson Reay take pictures of the launches of the lifeboat?
Did he make any money from selling any pictures, and if so how much?
If John Lawson Reay did get paid for selling any pictures of the lifeboat, did he make any donations to the RNLI?

I will admit i am a supporter of the RNLI. A few years ago i was on Llandudno promenade and i saw the smaller boat get launched and they sped off towards the pier and then i saw them rush back. From what i saw they had a young man who was injured and they were giving him first aid. I didn't know how bad the man was but after about 10 minutes the helicopter landed and took the man away.

From what i saw those lifeboatmen worked very professionally and they most probably saved that man's life. From then on i became a supporter of the RNLI.

I would love to see a new lifeboat on the prom and i cannot see why a wall ( a listed building) stops it from being built.

I ask John Lawson Reay to stop his objection to the lifeboat and work with them. As you say you were a lifeboatman why not join them and help the new boathouse to be built.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As the subject to these snide comments, despite the time lapse I should put on record my response.The changes over 45 yrs have been incremental. Boats have got bigger and heavier and have improved shelter for the crews along with upgraded navigational aids. The basic principles of seamanship have not altered. The man overboard is still the main problem, ie fishing people out of the water. I did attend all the launches of the lifeboat. At the time I lived just a few hundred yards from the LB station and worked, not as a photographer in the town. The shore crew had no part in the lauching as this was done by the tractor driver and the menchanic. The shore crew are necessary, for the recovery of the big boat. I never did sell a picture of a launch to anyone let alone a paper.The availabilty of both the big and inshore boats is wholely dependent on the time the crews take to assemble at the bost house wherever that may be. I have freely given material support to the local branch over the years since I was a member. The rejection of the planning application for a boat house on the Prom was not only because of the listed pier but on issues such as the size of the building,its innapropriate design, equivalent to a four storey building in height, in the centre of signifant conservation area. The dangers to the public of a 44ton lifeboat and tractor manoeuvring on the busiest part of the prom. The rig was stated to be 18m long while the prom was just 20m wide at the proposed lifeboat shed site. The plans indicated that the RLNI really wanted a shop on the prom as the plans showed that a third of the floor area would be devoted to retail. In my work in the intervening years I have been out on several Nth Wales lifeboats and filmed others in action so I do have some up to date knowledge of the rescue scene. Last year,2010, the big boat was only launched on service 4 times. Three for people who had broken down engines, while not immendiate danger, and once to pull someone out of the water who had fallen of his jetski. The inshore boat does almost all the business now. In fact Llandudno would be better served with an Atlantic type inshore boat such as is in service at Beaumaris.
John Lawson-Reay, Llandudno

Mark R said...

So last year was a slow year.

Go back in the history of the lifeboat service you will find the lifeboat hardly ever went out in the year. On a few occasions it never went out, on a rescue, all year.

In the past, before modern communications, the lifeboat went out when there was immediate danger to life.

Now they get there before any incident becomes life threatening.

It shouldn't matter how many times a lifeboat gets called out. They are there, and will go out in any conditions to rescue people.