Burnham-on-Crouch RNLI Floating Boathouse Appeal has just reached the £100,000 milestone.

A floating boathouse is required at Burnham for its new Atlantic 85 lifeboat, due to be placed on station in the spring of 2011.

The appeal was launched in June 2009 when it was realised the legacy earmarked to pay for the facility would fall short by £130,000.

Local support for the fund has been ‘amazing’ and lifeboat volunteers themselves have been heavily involved in the efforts. One group of crewmembers joined the Red Devils for a sponsored skydive.

Requests for RNLI assistance in Burnham in recent months have ranged from attending to marine mechanical failures to searching for missing persons and evacuating casualties from boats, some involving fatalities.

With such requests – thankfully – slightly down on previous years, it is thought that the work of the local RNLI Sea Safety group is reaching more boaters.

Burnham committee members believe the appeal will reach its target by June 2011, enabling the local community to pay for its own boathouse in its entirety. The RNLI will then be able to reallocate the funds to other communities in need of lifeboat or station support elsewhere on the coast.

For more information:
www.burnham-rnli.org.uk
www.rnli.org.uk