Lifeboat recruits keep it in the family!

TWO teenagers are following in the footsteps of their forefathers and training to be crew members for Portishead's voluntary lifeboat service.

Samantha Herbert, 16, and Jake Smith, 17, are the latest lifeboat cadets getting ready to take to the waters of the Severn Estuary and become fully fledged crew members of the Portishead and Bristol Lifeboat Trust.

Samantha, who is off to Weston College in September to study performing arts,  said from a young age that she planned to join the  lifeboat crew and is the third generation of her family to join the seafaring ranks.

Her dad Dave, 45, joined as a crew member for the Portishead Sailing Club rescue boat at the age of 16 before becoming a member of the trust when it launched in 1996.

Her grandfather, Ray, who died in 2001 aged 74, was also a crew member for the Sailing Club and was a founding member of the lifeboat trust.

Samantha - who is the youngest female trainee crew member the trust has ever taken on -  said: "It has become second nature to me with my dad leaving the house or rushing off to the boathouse at all hours of the day and night when the pager has gone off.

"I was always interested in what callouts the crew had been on and have spent many an hour at the boathouse with my sister Jessica while dad was carrying out maintenance to the lifeboat.

"I am excited about meeting the many challenges ahead and helping the community become a safer place and following in my father and grandfather's footsteps."

Coxswain Dave said: "It's fantastic that the third generation of the Herbert family is continuing the family tradition of volunteering on the lifeboat.

"It's good to know that Samantha will still be on the boat when I get too old for it."

Jake Smith, who is also a member of Portishead Air Cadets, will be joining his dad, Paul, 44, on the voluntary lifeboat crew.

Jake, who was born in Germany and moved to Portishead with his family in April 2006, said he is excited about becoming a member of the crew.

Jake, 17, who is studying A-levels at Gordano School, said:  "I used to go along with dad to see what it was all about and then became interested myself.

"We have been training for a couple of months now and I think being a crew member will help me learn different skills."

Dad Paul said: "I have been part of the lifeboat crew for just over two years and I am very proud that my son has started his training as a lifeboat cadet."

The teenage lifesavers have already been training for a couple of months, learning how to launch and recover the lifeboat and getting to grips with the trust's health and safety procedures.

The will now have to undergo more formal training, including how to learn how to use the boat's radio and navigation systems and completing a first aid course.

The training -  which will be carried out at trust headquarters at Sugar Loaf Beach and at Avon and Somerset Police headquarters in the town - will take around a year to complete.

Under law, crew members have to be aged 17 or over before they can go out on rescues.

The lifeboat service was launched after Portishead Yacht and Sailing Club ended its rescue services in the channel in 1992.

 

Following the closure, local people were concerned that Portishead's coastline had been left without a dedicated rescue service and lobbied the RNLI to set up a lifeboat station.

 

But the RNLI said opening a rescue base in Portishead was not viable, prompting local residents to set up the Portishead Lifeboat Trust.

 

The trust, which is a registered charity, officially launched in 1996 and within 48 hours of opening, crews were sent on their first service call to a rescue in the channel.

 

Crews have launched the boat into the channel 271times since the trust's formation 12 years ago and assisted 337 people.

 

It costs around £40,000 a year to keep the lifeboat on the water and as it receives no funding, all the cash has to be raised locally.

Anyone who wants to know more about the trust or help its fundraising efforts can log onto www.portishead-lifeboat.org.uk.