Volunteer crew at Looe lifeboat station have responded to two shouts in recent days.

The first call out was at approximately 6pm on Monday 3 October, to reports of a dismasted yacht off Downderry with two people in the water. The Atlantic lifeboat Alan and Margaret was launched with helm Clive Palfrey, crew John Crabb and Toby Bray.

The lifeboat brought the casualties and the yacht ashore to Downderry and was met by the Tamar coastguard team. The lifeboat returned to station at 7pm.

Then, at 4.05am on Wednesday 5 October, crew were woken to the sound of the pagers following reports of a person in the water off East Looe beach. The D class lifeboat Ollie Naismith was launched within six minutes to search for the person and other lifeboat crew went to the beach to assist in the search with search lights.

The casualty was spotted near rocks in five feet of water and brought back to the safety of the beach by volunteer lifeboat crew. The casualty was taken to the lifeboat station and handed over to police and ambulance personnel.

Looe’s two lifeboats were launched at 3pm on Sunday afternoon to reports of a speedboat sinking near the island.

Both Looe’s lifeboats, Atlantic 75 class ‘Alan and Margaret’ and D class ‘Ollie Naismith’ were launched and sped to the scene.

The speedboat’s three crew had already been picked up by a passing fishing boat.The vessel was almost fully submerged but the crew were able to attach a tow line and bring it back into the safety of the harbour.

The speedboat was beached and pumped out and the source of the leak was identified and fixed.

Atlantic helm Clive Palfrey, crew Dale Staff and Jamie Curtis.

D Class helm Brian Bowdler, crew Gareth Shaw and Matt Jaycock.

Both boats returned to station at approximately 3.30pm.

Looe’s Atlantic class lifeboat ‘Alan and Margaret’ was launched on Tuesday morning to reports of a small yacht dragging its anchor off Plaidy.

The alarm was raised at 11.30am when the yacht was seen drifting towards the shore in a strong easterly wind. One person was aboard.

The lifeboat was launched to assist and towed the vessel into the safety of the harbour. Lifeboat operations manager David Haines said:

‘It was a difficult tow into the harbour due to the spring tides and the strong onshore winds which made the bar at the harbour entrance difficult to negotiate.’

Crew were Mike Berry and Sam Pearson and helm Brian Bowdler.

Volunteer crew at Looe Lifeboat Station had a busy weekend, responding to four shouts in just over 24 hours.

The first call out was at approximately 6.40pm on Friday evening, to reports of a woman with a suspected back injury at Tregonhawke, Whitsand Bay. The Atlantic 75 lifeboat ‘Alan and Margaret’ was launched and the injured woman and her two children were brought back to Looe, to a waiting paramedic and volunteer lifeboat crew member Dr Dale Staff. She was assessed and required no further treatment.

On Saturday, the pagers went off at approximately 2.30pm, after Brixham Coastguard received a 999 call with reports of children in an inflatable drifting offshore. The D class lifeboat ‘Ollie Naismith’ was launched and on arrival at the scene, the crew found the youngsters to be safe and well and they made their own way ashore.

Then at 6.30pm, the ‘Ollie Naismith’ was launched again after a hand-glider came down on the cliffs at Murraton. Coastguard and police were also called to the scene and the lifeboat crew did a shoreline search of the area. The hand-glider was found uninjured at the top of the cliff.

The final shout of the day was at about 9.30pm when reports came in of an overturned boat off Plaidy with three people in the water. The Atlantic 75 ‘Alan and Margaret’ was launched and the call-out turned out to be a false alarm with good intent.

Looe’s Atlantic 75 class lifeboat Alan and Margaret was launched on Monday morning to reports of a sailor with a head injury.

The man was sailing with his wife on a 30ft yacht two miles south of Looe when he was hit on the head by the boom.

The lifeboat was launched at 11.30am and on arrival, crews administered first aid to the head injury.

The yacht was anchored in position, and the man and his wife were taken back to Looe harbour where they were met by paramedics. He was taken to Liskeard hospital for further care.

The lifeboat crew returned to the yacht and secured it on a mooring in Looe bay.

The couple, from Plymouth, returned to Looe in the afternoon and were taken to their yacht by local fisherman and volunteer crew member Richard Porter.

Crew were: helm Clive Palfrey, crew Sam Pearson and Jamie Curtis.

On Sunday, both of Looe’s lifeboats were launched to assist in a search for a missing hand glider. The lifeboats took part in a search with the coastguard and lifeguards from Treganhawke and Tregantle. They were stood down as the shout was a false alarm with good intent.

The volunteer crews of the Fowey RNLI all-weather lifeboat  Maurice and Joyce Hardy and the Looe inshore lifeboats, the D class Ollie Naismith and the Atlantic class Alan and Margaret, launched last night (Thursday 24 March) to reports of a fishing boat that had not returned to Looe.

The Fowey crew located the vessel 25 miles south of Fowey and took it in tow, returning to the port at 4am this morning (April 25).

The RNLI crews were alerted when the fishing boat, which operates out of Looe, didn’t return at the expected time.

The two Looe lifeboat crews immediately began an inshore search, concentrating around the local shoreline.

Meanwhile, two ships in the area had contacted the Coastguard to report seeing a vessel with no navigation lights on.

The Fowey lifeboat went to the scene and immediately put two crew volunteers onboard the vessel where they discovered a casualty.

The lifeboat crew then took the fishing boat in tow and returned to Fowey where the vessel was placed in the hands of the police.