City Livery Yacht Club

CLYC LAUNCHES APPEAL FOR RNLI THAMES

Following from his success in raising funds for the RNLI's London branch appeal for 'City of London III', the new Tamar lifeboat for Sennen Cove, the CLYC Committee has approved Clifford Champion's proposal to help the RNLI Tower Lifeboat Station in its aim to raise funds to support this vital service. He has asked all members to seek support from their Livery Companies.

In his letter, Clifford says 'We have, in our square mile, seven bridges and over a mile of the River Thames from which our crews, from the start of the Tower Station, have been called out 2,666 times and rescued 179 people from drowning.'

This 24 hour service costs £625,000 per annum to maintain, yet the prime amount to keep this service going comes from donations and contributions from outside the City. Only one Livery Company has so far contributed: the Worshipful Company of Fuellers provides the fuel for the boats.

One of the crews from Tower Station

The crew themselves are doing their bit: volunteers from the Tower Lifeboat Station aim to raise £30,000 towards the £400,000 cost of replacing two of their ageing craft. They took part in the Five Peaks Challenge in June, scaling Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Snowdon, Slieve Donard and Carrantuohill.

As someone from the Westminster RNLI station said, they have saved a large number of lives in the last eight years. The City of London has contributed, but they need to raise cash themselves.

Commodore Michael Wilkey's daughter, Susanna, ran in the Virgin London Marathon to raise funds for the London Lifeboats. See a report of her progress in the Commodore's June message.