05/06/2026
After a crew briefing in the boathouse last Wednesday evening, our RNLI volunteer crews launched both of the charity's inshore lifeboats for a training exercise in Looe bay. As well as reviewing emergency and man overboard procedures, our crews practiced a towing method known as rafting, where the lifeboats are secured together enabling a highly stable and manoeuvrable tow.
Normally one lifeboat will tow the other on exercises, but this evening, another of our volunteer crew, along with three other crew members, took his fishing boat out into the bay to act as a "casualty" vessel. This gave our crews the opportunity to tow a larger vessel. With the D Class taking up the first tow using the line astern method. The D Class helm periodically changing direction out in the bay allowing the crew to experience how the changes in wind direction and tidal currents in the lumpy sea conditions affects the dynamics of the tow. After a while, the Atlantic 85 took over the tow and bought the fishing boat into the mouth of Looe river. Here the Atlantic 85 was rafted to the starboard side and with the D Class rafted on the port side they took the fishing boat up river, close to its moorings. With the exercise complete crews returned to the boathouse to recover the lifeboats and conduct the exercise debrief.
