Prince Michael of Kent spent over an hour at the Cowes RNLI lifeboat station yesterday (Saturday), talking to the station’s volunteers and receiving a guided tour of the station, opened by Her Majesty The Queen in 2012.
The visit coincided with the period when the station was on full stand-by because of the famous Round the Island race, which Prince Michael started earlier that morning.
The Royal told Cowes RNLI’s operations manager, Mark Southwell, that whilst he did not have an in-depth knowledge of the RNLI, he is Commonwealth President of the Royal Lifesaving Society and so was particularly interested in the RNLI’s emphasis on water safety through its new Respect the Water campaign.
Accompanied by the Island’s Lord Lieutenant, Prince Michael then heard from the station’s visits officer, Penny Maclean, that the RNLI was working in partnership with the society to drastically reduce the number of drownings in the country.
The Prince also met Harry Leslie, who as well as being a Deputy Launching Authority at the station is also a consultant for the RNLI concerning the charity’s new RCAMS system for calling people out and communicating.
Harry said:
“I explained that this system puts the RNLI at the forefront of emergency service communication in this country.
“The Prince clearly appreciated the pivotal role taken by the RNLI in what is the first emergency service to produce a multi-agency incident transfer capability.”
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As part of his tour the Prince climbed up on to the station’s Atlantic 85 lifeboat in the boathouse and heard about its extensive equipment from boat crew member Mark Harker and shore crew Ian Luff.
