Annual Station Open Day announced for Sunday 2 August

Crosshaven's annual Station Open day takes place from 1400 to 1800 on Sunday 28 August. Come and visit the station, talk to the crew, tour the lifeboat and enjoy the fun. It will bring an end to the "Lifeboat Weekend" being held by the Crosshaven Vintners with a progressive dinner and lots of other events.

Crosshaven RNLI Branch Coffee Morning at station on 7 July

Crosshaven RNLI fundraising branch are delighted to announce the first ever coffee-morning to be held in the Lifeboat Station. It takes place on 7th July at 11:00. Admission is €2 and the morning includes raffles, spot prizes and a tour of Crosshaven Lifeboat. All welcome.

National Maritime College raises funds for RNLI

A cheque for EUR2,500 was presented to Anne Sweeney (Area Organiser, RNLI) and Phil Maguire-Hähnel (Lifeboat Press Officer, Crosshaven Lifeboat) by the students of the National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy. This will go to fund training of crewmembers, and crewmembers Aidan O'Connor, Ritchie Kelleher and Kevin Higgins took the lifeboat around to the College pontoon to thank the fundraisers for their efforts.

Crosshaven Lifeboat "Christmas Party" and awards night

Crosshaven Lifeboat crew held their annual Christmas party and awards night on Saturday 5th February in Buckleys Pub, Crosshaven. Retiring crew, John Mulcahy, Trudy Hyde, Derry O'Sullivan (DLA) and Hugh Mockler (LOM) were presented with the traditional cast bronze statue of an inshore lifeboatman. Hugh was also presented with a framed picture of "Miss Betty" in full flight to mark his service as the inaugural SHS/LOM of Crosshaven Lifeboat Station. Aidan O'Connor was presented with the not-much sought after toilet seat for the "Gaff of the Year" award.

Crosshaven Lifeboat crewmember attends Lifeboat College Opening

Ian Venner attended the opening of the Lifeboat College with 232 other Coxwains and Helmsmen from all the stations around the coast of the UK and Ireland. The college was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II, the patron of the Institution. The event was covered in the Irish Examiner. Also visit our Gallery for photos of the college.

Presentations to retired crewmembers

At a recent function, the crew presented bronze statues of inshore lifeboatmen to retiring crewmembers Paul Brierley and Ruairi Higgins. The statues, from sculptor Anthony Powell in the UK, are cast in bronze and are limited edition.

New paging system online

On Tuesday 16th December, Crosshaven Lifeboat Station went live with the new CallOut And Communication System, or "COACS", for alerting crew to a launch. This system is common across all lifeboat stations, and enables the Coastguard to pass information to the crew by text messaging pagers or a printout in the station. The system can be activated by the Coastguard, Launch Authorities or directly via the station. The crew can also use it to send messages about training, meetings, etc. to each other. The RNLI website will soon show if a station has been launched with a real-time link to this system. The same day, the station turned on the Christmas lights - photos to follow in our gallery.

Crosshaven Lifeboat carries on 200 year-old tradition

Crosshaven Lifeboat Station will be firing two maroons from this weekend each time the lifeboat launches on service. Maroons, which are similar to flares, go up to one thousand feet and explode with a loud bang. Before telephones and modern paging systems, maroons were the only way to call out the crew in the past. The RNLI continues to use them nowadays to signal to the casualty that the lifeboat is on its way. It also alerts crews’ families, lifeboat supporters and water users that the lifeboat has launched and is heading to sea. Many survivors, their grip on life fading, have said "When we heard the maroons we held on, knowing help was on the way". The maroons are fired from a fixed launcher in the station following strict procedures and training. They will only be used between 0800 and 2100 during the winter, and up to 2200 in the summer. They may also be used to call out the crew in the event of the main pager system failing. So far this year, Crosshaven Lifeboat have launched on service 32 times - the busiest year since the station was founded. For more information or to keep up to date with the latest news visit www.crosshavenlifeboat.org.

Crosshaven RNLI Race Night

The Crosshaven RNLI race night at the Curraheen Dog Track in Bishopstown was a fantastic success with over €10,000 being raised for the lifeboat station in Crosshaven. There was a very good attendance at the outing with over 200 corporate tickets sold for the event with many local companies buying tables and everyone certainly enjoying the atmosphere, keeping a close eye of the form, with some punters doing remarkably well on the night!Crosshaven RNLI chairman Mick Good said "It was a fantastic night and immensely successful and we were very pleased with the response from the business and people of Crosshaven on this particular venture. There were a lot of people who did and enormous amount of work over the past five to six weeks in preparing for the race night here in the Greyhound track and it has all paid off handsomely". He paid tribute to the sponsors of the 10 races to the people who bought dogs for the event and to Stephen McCarthy of Astra Construction who were the main sponsors of the fund raising night. There were 10 races on the cards during the evening, with local businesses sponsoring each race, many of which were present on the night. However the main race was the seventh race of the evening, The Astra Construction Stakes, which was won by "Cool Gamble", trained by Paul Hennessy who was presented with the winner’s cheque by Mr. McCarthy. As a mark of appreciation to the main sponsor of the evening, the Crosshaven RNLI committee made a presentation to Mr. McCarthy of Astra Construction for his valuable assistance and support of the Crosshaven Lifeboat. Emphasizing the need for funding, Mr. Good went on to say that it costs an estimated €2,800 just to launch an Atlantic 75 lifeboat such as the one in Crosshaven, through such expenses as stores, maintenances of the boat and station, and that it costs approximately €5 million to operate the RNLI in Ireland each year.
Report by: Howard Crowdy, County News Irish Examiner, 18th March 2003.

B-782 Returns to station

'Miss Betty' returned to Crosshaven on Wednesday 24 September. The boat had been in Cowes undergoing repairs following the damage on service. She is now back on service and safeguarding the mariners around Cork Harbour! B-774 is on station at Helvick Head while their station boat goes for a four-yearly refit.