The 471st meeting was held at Badgemore Park on 8th March 2022.
After the formal business had been conducted, the Chairman introduced the guest speaker Wayne Bellamy who is the Royal Naval Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Manager for Chiswick which is the second busiest RNLI station in the UK and Ireland.
The station was set up after the Marchioness disaster in 1989, which resulted in the deaths of 51 people.
Having started his naval career in the Coast Guard in Vancouver, Canada Wayne moved to England and has been manager of the Chiswick RNLI Station since 2001; more latterly he has been involved with Teddington and Southend on Sea RNLI stations. Wayne’s talk covered the activities of the RNLI stations across the UK and covered the types of boats deployed (hovercraft, E-class boats etc. which is determined by local conditions and required rescue services), the conditions that demand rescue activities (e.g., tidal flow, river flow, water temperature) and the volume and type of rescue activities (22 rescues per day in UK and Ireland with 99% of sea rescues being within 1 mile of the coast).
Wayne was an excellent speaker, and the talk was very well received by the Probus Club members.