Wick lifeboat crew benefit from £10,000 Beatrice grant for crew training

Wick lifeboat coxswain Allan Lipp underlined the importance of training after the local RNLI branch received Beatrice funding to keep crew members' skills up to date.

A grant of £10,000 from the Caithness Beatrice Community Fund covered the cost of 10 residential training courses this year to help ensure the smooth running of the service that is committed to saving lives at sea.

SSE Renewables administers the fund on behalf of Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd with a local panel making award decisions.

Mr Lipp said he and his fellow crew members were grateful for the support.

“They have been very good to us,” he said.

“It's a grant that we had to apply for and it went to the community benefit team, who are largely local. They decide where the money actually goes.

“It's a big pot of money that SSE set aside when the wind farm was developed, and that's to go to the community.

“It's nice to get money, at the end of the day, but it's especially nice when it's local people that are deciding where that money goes in terms of people and organisations applying for it. It's nice to think that the locals that are making the decisions think highly of us.”

Mr Lipp emphasised that crew training is an integral part of the lifeboat service.

“With fewer folk coming from a maritime background in a volunteering sense in the RNLI nowadays, that is partly why training is more important. But also from a compliance point of view – we're an emergency service, available 24/7, so there are expectations that come with that and standards that are laid down for us to adhere to," he said.

“That is really where it's coming from – getting everybody trained up to the required standard. It's to keep them safe, first and foremost, but at the same time being able to do the job in hand.

“We aim to get at least one afloat exercise a week, sometimes more than that. That in itself comes to quite a significant cost, and it all adds up.”

The RNLI is one of many organisations that have been affected by the disruption to community events and charity fundraising activities since the start of Covid-19.

But Mr Lipp added: “We are very fortunate here. The community supports us in quite a special way.

“There is quite a community spirit in and around the town, and it's nice to have that because I know everyone is going through the same thing with the Covid pandemic.

“It's not just us that's affected – everybody is affected, so we try to be mindful of that.”

SSE’s community fund manager Fiona Morrison visited the town's RNLI station on Friday and met some of the crew.

She said: “The Caithness Beatrice panel are delighted to support the RNLI in Wick with funding which ensures that the volunteers who are giving up their time to deliver this valuable service gain the necessary skills and training.”

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