The Sumner Lifeboat.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19851, 12 February 1930, Page 10

The Sumner Lifeboat.

Except for the preposterous hold-up by the Customs Department, the arrival of the new lifeboat for Suriiner marks the cdmpletion Of a splendid effort to meet th» risks *hd dangers 6* th«

Sumner bar. For many years the bar has been a serious impediment to the course of free navigation, and will no doubt continue so for many years to come, but although some serious calamities have occurred there, the record of disaster has been vastly reduced by the aid always available from the local lifeboat organisation and such equipment as it possessed. The new lifeboat is as up-to-date a craft as any stationed round the coasts of England, and will enable rescue work to be conducted much more expeditiously and efficiently than has ever before been possible. There will indeed be a chance now of extending the scope of the work of the lifeboat organisation to embrace not only the Sumner bar itself, but the Sumner bay, and the stretch of coast from New Brighton to Taylor's Mistake, so that not only yachtsmen and boat crews in peril but surfers carried out to sea and in danger of drowning may be assisted. It is of course most unfortunate that at the time when the boat arrives the changes in the estuary have caused the channel leading to the bar to recede a considerable distance from the pier head, where the boathouse and slipway are situated, and if the present conditions are to be considered as stabilised (and there is no knowing whether that is so or not) it may become necessary to extend the pier and move forward the boathouse and slipway in order that the lifeboat may be launched promptly. In the meantime the new lifeboat will have to be stationed at the boat harbour at the end of Sumner bay most remote from the bar, and by no means in the best position for rendering timely aid to those in peril.