Wildly inaccurate launchtime boast

I read the article about the RNLI crew having their first shout since relocating to Maer Rocks, but I didn t much like the operations manager saying the launch time was far quicker than when the lifeboat was moored off the docks.

I read the article about the RNLI crew having their first shout since relocating to Maer Rocks, but I didn't much like the operations manager saying the launch time was far quicker than when the lifeboat was moored off the docks.

The operations manager said in the article that the launch took only 15 minutes, which he claimed was 40 per cent quicker than when the lifeboat was on a mooring. This suggested that it took us 21 minutes to launch - which is rubbish!

When the Margaret Jean can launch in six minutes, it will have equalled our record with the Trent.

When relocation to Maer Rocks was first suggested, I thought it was the wrong place to build a lifeboat station. I sat through presentations and seminars and heard lots of arguments made in support of the move, which were based on inaccurate information. I have never said anything in public against the relocation as I'd expressed my feelings in a letter to the RNLI when it was first mooted.

But this latest, wildly inaccurate, claim about this launch time is one too many to ignore and I felt I had to set the record straight.

Keith Graham,

(via email).