Fox Raise £500 for RNLI Hunstanton Lifeboat

Fox raised £500 for the new Hunstanton lifeboat:

Fox held a beer and blues festival at the Fox and Hounds, Heacham, during August bank holiday weekend.

The pub has around 25 real ales and ciders to tempt customers and we invited the After Hours Blues Band, Rock Steady, Doc from the Blues Tubes, Stone Pony and Bo-Nidle.

Pub and brewery owner Mark Bristow said we had collections during the weekend for the lifeboat we did not charged for admission but instead relied on donations for the charity.

Supporters of the RNLI are being asked to raise money for a new lifeboat in Hunstanton with a new Lynn News-backed appeal. And events are already being planned by supporters in a bid to achieve the £125,000 needed to replace the current lifeboat with a state-of-the-art Atlantic 85 inshore boat to cover The Wash.

The appeal was announced in last Friday's Lynn News and the RNLI held the official launch in Hunstanton on Tuesday alongside the annual sandcastle competition organised by the Lifeboat Guild.

The new Atlantic 85 can respond more rapidly than the current Atlantic 75 it also has new radar search equipment, a self-righting mechanism, more space for casualties and crew and can be beached in an emergency without causing damage to the engines or steering gear.

Hunstanton's lifeboat operations manager Robin Rafferty said the aim was to provide the volunteer crew with the best equipment.

"Our volunteers don't get paid, yet they are always there to answer the call for help every day of the year, day and night in all weather conditions. We owe it to them," he said.

The current lifeboat has been in use since September 1998 and works with the hovercraft Hunstanton Flyer which is one of only four in use. It can operate in mud, sand and over very shallow waters.

The lifeboat itself was called out 23 times last year, the hovercraft four times, and a total of 15 people were rescued by the service.