Hundreds flock to Exmouth's lifeboat station

HUNDREDS of visitors packed the town's new lifeboat station on Saturday when the RNLI crew held its annual open day.

HUNDREDS of visitors packed the town's new lifeboat station on Saturday when the RNLI crew held its annual open day.

More visitors than ever flocked to the event as this year the crew opened the doors to the multi-million pound newly-built seafront boathouse, near Maer Rocks.

Visitors were invited to take a look inside the main hall, which will eventually house the all-weather lifeboat, and the new inshore lifeboat building.

The tills in the RNLI shop rang for most of the day as supporters dug deep and bought souvenirs.

Scores of onlookers watched from the beach as the Exmouth RNLI lifeguards teamed up with the inshore and all-weather lifeboat crews to demonstrate how they work together during sea rescue missions.

At Exmouth dock the all-weather lifeboat, Margaret Jean, was brought alongside for the public to go aboard and see the equipment up close.

Exmouth RNLI lifeboat operations manager Kevin Riley said the day raised several hundreds of pounds for the charity.

He said: "We had lots of people asking the usual questions about the ramp, which I can understand.

"The samples of the concrete have been taken and once we have had the results we will meet with the other agencies and discuss the way to go ahead."

Mr Riley thanked everyone who helped throughout the day, and the visiting public, for supporting the event and making the open day a success.