Skegness Magazine

RAF Waddington Survival School and Skegness Lifeboat crew to raise money RNLI during Lifeboat Week 2007

Flight Lieutenant Lea Dunning (left in picture) and Master Air Crew member, Mark Dolman will be again raising money for the RNLI during Lifeboat Week on 27th and 28th July this year.

A 26 man survival raft, containing a crew of five RAF personnel, at least two crew members of the Skegness Lifeboat, and a female army member, will be launched off Skegness beach.
The raft crew will rough it at sea for over 24 hours.

Mark was one of the crew in the survival raft in the 2006 photos and video (link below). We asked him if he was looking forward to being ’stranded’ at sea again. “It will be well worth it”, he said. “Last year we raised enough money to train two new lifeboat members”.

Skegness lifeboat coxswain, John Irving, invited yours truely to join the crew in the survival raft… now you know we’d like to… but someone has to stay on dry land to video the event for you, don’t they?

Tip - subscribe to our RSS so you don’t miss the photos and video of Lifeboat Week in Skegness … oh, and don’t tell anyone but we’ve had a tip off that the Mayor of Skegness himself will be stranded at sea and in need of rescuing! Surely not a sight to be missed…

RAF Survival Raft off Skegness Beach
local news story date 5th August 2006

RAF Waddington Survival School had set up a tent on Skegness Central Beach.

Skegness News on Video went to investigate.

We caught up with Sergeant Neil Winrow who is a non-commissioned air crew member stationed at RAF Waddington near Lincoln.

Sergeant Winrow told us that they were doing the excercise off Skegness Central Beach to raise funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

There were five of his collegues and one member of the RNLI on a survival raft in the North Sea off Skegness Central Beach.

They had been there for 30 hours and had another 6 hours to go.

Interviewer, Paul Gooch asked Sergeant Winrow if this was risky as the North Sea was notoriously cold and dangerous, pointing out that a great number of aircraft crew were lost in World War 2 when their aircraft ditched in the North Sea. Sergeant Winrow replied that the crew on the raft were well protected, dressed in the survival equipment they would have in a real survival situation. He added that this excersise was good training for them for something they would have to do in a real life situation. In addition, the men had rations exactly same as if it were a real situation. The rations comprised a tin of boiled sweets. Sergeant Winrow invited interviewer, Paul Gooch to try one of the sweets. Paul said they were quite plain tasting and not very sugary.

below: a photos of the RAF survival raft off Skegness Beach.

Sergeant Winrow and his collegue, Flight Lieutenant Al Jackson (right in photo) explained about the type of survival raft their collegues and the RNLI crewman were in.

They said it was similar to the one in the bottom right picture below.

This RAF survival raft held 5 men but the one afloat in the sea was a 26 man raft.

Sergeant Winrow demonstrated a one man RAF survival raft (photo top left). The white piece of cloth behind the pod looks rather like a parachute when opened out. Sergeant Winrow explained that this acted as an anchor for the pod.

Just as the pod was being demonstrated to us, the inshore lifeboat rescue arrived on scene. The lifeboat man told us he would have to take the one-man raft as it was needed by the crew out at sea.

The inshore lifeboat was launched off the crowded Skegness beach and the pod was delevered to the floating 26-man raft.

A member of the RNLI said that on the previous morning around 8am, the swell of the waves was 14-15 feet, and two of the RAF Survival Raft crew were feeling unwell.

Sergeant Winrow explained that 6 men in a 26-man raft allowed for alot of ‘rolling around’, which wouldn’t have helped the men who were feeling ill.

Before you view the video, please remember I didn’t have my tripod to hand so the zooms out to sea are a little shakey.

World War Heritage Relics Trail Skegness Area