Cowes RNLI was tasked to launch by Solent Coastguard this morning (Friday) when a personal locator beacon was activated in the vicinity of Cowes Harbour.
The volunteer crew launched the lifeboat shortly after 09:00 and using Direction Finding (DF), directed Coastguard officers on land to establish if the alert was a genuine distress or malfunction by a piece of equipment.
After an hour of repeated runs using the DF and local knowledge it was determined that no person or boat was in distress. The lifeboat was rehoused soon after having been away from the station for around an hour.
The station’s operations manager, Mark Southwell, has said:
“With a growing awareness of their own safety by all mariners there is an increasing use of PLBs. It is a pleasing trend as, indeed, is the increasing use of lifejackets by people using Cowes harbour.
“The fact that we have now had three false alarms from PLBs in the last three months should not be allowed to hide this very positive fact.”
