Home   News   Article

There’s no better feeling than going out there and helping somebody, says Wick RNLI coxswain Allan Lipp





Allan Lipp on the Wick lifeboat Roy Barker II in the town's harbour. Picture: Alan Hendry
Allan Lipp on the Wick lifeboat Roy Barker II in the town's harbour. Picture: Alan Hendry

Wick lifeboat coxswain Allan Lipp has paid tribute to the dedication of RNLI volunteers and the way they have adjusted to extra demands throughout the coronavirus crisis – at a time when the charity is having to cope with drastically reduced funding.

Crews up and down the country have adapted to new safety protocols while remaining fully focused on the vital task of saving lives at sea. “It all comes with risk," Allan said. "We just try and balance that risk as best we can to get the best outcome.”

Allan (41), who hails from Easter Ross, was only one month into the job at Wick when the impact of Covid-19 began to be felt. Regular training exercises were affected, crew members had to be kitted out with personal protective equipment (PPE) and a thorough sanisiting regime was required every time the boat returned to port.

With community events and fundraising activities being cancelled, there was suddenly a severe drop in the amount of money coming in to the RNLI nationally and locally. An increase in "missing person" call-outs linked to mental health problems made it an even more testing time for members of the Wick crew.

“We’ve always been here available for service calls, right the way through, but the exercising had to stop, just as a duty of care more than anything else – keeping the crew as safe as we can," Allan said.

Allan served as a volunteer on the Wick lifeboat crew before taking on the role of coxswain earlier this year. Picture: Alan Hendry
Allan served as a volunteer on the Wick lifeboat crew before taking on the role of coxswain earlier this year. Picture: Alan Hendry

“We’ve got a safe system of work now that allows us to exercise but it’s still a reduced frequency. We’re basically going afloat once a fortnight.

“We could be out in flat calm conditions or we could be out in fairly horrific conditions, and the taskings that we get can vary. It’s trying to get everybody up to speed with everything that can be thrown at us.

"That brings its own challenges when we can’t get out as much as we would like."

It has been a busy spell for emergency calls, not all of them relating to vessels in difficulties.

“If anything we’ve probably been busier throughout the lockdown period," Allan said. "We’ve had something like 15 shouts from the start of lockdown to now, and that has been a real variety. There’s the usual boat-related stuff but we have had a lot of self-harm type things going on, suicide... That has had a knock-on effect with us.

"We have been out at the request of the police and the coastguard to assist with searches for missing people. It’s the not-nice side of things but it’s an important part of it."

Wick lifeboat mainly covers an area stretching from south of Helmsdale up to the Pentland Firth, sometimes overlapping with other RNLI teams. Allan said: “As a lifeboat station we’ve got a huge area and without a doubt one of the nastiest bits of water in the country on our doorstep – and some of the shouts that we’ve had this year have been on the outer edges of the area that we cover.”

The lifeboat service receives no UK government funding, so it relies on the generosity of its supporters. Allan is cautiously optimistic about fundraising events returning in 2021, but in the meantime the organisation's finances have been hit hard.

“Our funding is down significantly – it’s something like £30 million across the RNLI that there’s a shortfall of this year due to lockdown," he said.

“As an organisation across the board over £1 million has been spent on Covid-related PPE for us – face masks and gloves and things like that. And that’s all over and above what we would normally be doing and having to provide for volunteers.

“What we have to do is wipe down everything that has been touched on the boat. That includes any of the shared PPE, so helmets and things like that need to be properly and thoroughly sanitised, as well as everything in the boat.

“If you take inside the wheelhouse for example, even some of the navigation tools that we’ve got, once they’re used, need to be wiped down. And that’s after every time the boat has been used. Whether it’s just a routine exercise or a tasking, it doesn’t matter if it’s two o’clock in the morning – it still needs to be done and made ready for service so the next time a call comes in we’re ready to go.

“It’s volunteers giving up their time. The guys are dropping whatever they’re doing to come and crew the boat and get it to sea.

“Most folk get a lot of enjoyment out of it – that’s why we do what we do. But it’s the extra burden that is put on everybody... not just the cleaning aspect but potentially having to be at sea for hours on end wearing face masks and things like that."

Wick lifeboat has always been well supported at local level, with the annual RNLI Harbour Day being a focal point for fundraising. With its mix of charity stalls, pipe band parades, barbecue, live music and Highland dancing, against a backdrop of boats bedecked with bunting, the event has raised five-figure sums in previous years but didn't happen in 2020. That represents a financial hit but also a lost opportunity to engage with the public and raise awareness of the lifeboat service.

“It’s not just the monetary side," Allan said. "These are all social events – not just for the public but for the crew and families and fundraising team. We’re one team here.

“These events are a lot of work but the team get a lot out of that in terms of interaction and meeting the public. And it’s good for the public as well – they see what we’re doing and hopefully they will put their hand in their pocket and give us something as a result.

“Hopefully that comes back next year. We’ve just got to be careful – we don’t want to plan too much and have to let people down.

“We’ll just keep an eye on what’s going on with vaccines and hopefully some sort of relaxation on being able to do some fundraising activities and the like.”

In the meantime Allan is grateful that as many as 33 volunteers are prepared to step forward and crew the lifeboat when called upon.

“We’re very fortunate here that we’ve got so many volunteers for a single-boat station – that’s a really healthy number of crew," he said.

“We’ve got a really good mix and we have quite a number of younger crew, which is really nice to see. They’re the future of the station, really, so keeping that enthusiasm and mix of age groups and experience is pretty brilliant, and we’ve got a number of females as well, so that’s always good.

“I’m here as a paid employee, as is Johnny Grant [mechanic coxswain], but we are backed up by an army of volunteers and that’s the important thing to remember. The boat wouldn’t be going to sea without the volunteers doing what they do, and that’s including the fundraisers, because without fundraising coming in we’re nothing.

You literally grab somebody in their last breath and they’re no longer in that position.

“People have to want to do it and have to want to volunteer to make it happen. The helping people side of it, personally that’s what I get the biggest reward from. There’s not really any better feeling than going out there and actually helping somebody.

“It can be something fairly benign but at the same time, having been there and having done it, you literally grab somebody in their last breath and they’re no longer in that position – they’re somewhere safer and in a better place. It’s just a hugely rewarding thing.”

Allan joined the RNLI in 1996, following in the footsteps of his father David who was coxswain of the Invergordon lifeboat. Allan had the role of fleet staff coxswain prior to moving to Wick last July, initially serving as a volunteer before being appointed as coxswain in February.

His partner Mhairi Ross is an ambulance technician and is also a volunteer on the Wick lifeboat crew.

Allan said: “I don’t really think of what I do as a job, because I’ve been doing it long enough as a volunteer. I still get that same enjoyment out of it and it doesn’t feel like going to work every day – which is a good thing, I guess.

“In terms of the hours and input involved in running a lifeboat station and keeping everything going, it’s not just a nine-to-five job.

"We’re here to help the community and provide an emergency service. We always do what we can, where we can.”


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.


This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More