The Secretary of RBRB Association, the charity that runs the rescue boat, took part in the annual Whitby Boxing Day swim to raise funds for the charity. Christine Scaife (seen here centre photo), along with many other Boxing Day revellers, braved sub-zero air temperatures to dip in the sea off Whitby’s East Pier. What an angel.

Photos taken by Helmsman Mike Sewell between 25th and 28th November.

On Saturday 11th September 2010 our Chairman, Tom Bottomley, swam to Whitby from Runswick Bay to raise money for the charity. So far a fantastic sum of over £3,000 has been raised and the donation website is still available at www.justgiving.com/runswicktowhitby. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported this event, and also a special thanks to the crew who manned both rescue boats for the day to ensure a safe passage.

There’s a video of the event on You Tube, see below.

The Yorkshire Post published a feature in Tuesday’s Business Section about RBRB’s chairman and his passion for the Rescue Boat. The feature also promotes a 7 mile swim he is undertaking this summer, to raise funds for RBRB, from Runswick Bay sands to Whitby.

The 2010 Runswick Bay Rescue Boat fundraising weekend, held on the weekend of 6th-8th August 2010, has been an amazing success and has raised over £3,000 for the charity.

The weekend started, after displaying the boat and merchandise at the Hinderwell Show, with the annual Beef Supper in the village institute on Friday evening.

The ticket only event was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who attended and there was an address by both the Crew Leader and the Chairman who thanked the many people who had contributed, but most notably Simon and Theresa Blackburn for organising it.

There was an auction of a trio of Jon Hall paintings which raised over £800 and the chairman expressed his gratitude to Jon, who had travelled that day to Runswick to complete the pictures in time for the dinner, in addition to all the other donors of fantastic auction and raffle prizes including further paintings, trips down Boulby Mine and many bottles and other items.

The following day there was cricket on the beach, bellboat races and an evening barbecue and the weekend was capped by a coffee morning in the village institute on the Sunday morning and a display by RBRB on the Sunday afternoon.

You can see PICTURES of the weekend here and also a VIDEO of the display here.

The crew and committee of RBRB would like to thank everyone who helped to make the weekend such as success.

The annual fundraising weekend is fast approaching.

There’s a Beef Supper in the Village Institute on Friday evening, beach cricket, beach BBQ, bell boat races and of course the display on Sunday afternoon at 3:30pm. RBRB will arrive back in Runswick, from joining in the Whitby RNLI display, at around 3:15pm.

For more information and times, please refer to posters around the village.

On Wednesday 30th June, the speedboat ‘Hands Off’ rang a village contact to report that it had suffered engine failure and was drifting. With poor weather closing in, and very bad visibility, they soon lost their bearings. RBRB was launched and, by maintaining close comms with the boat, eventually located their position off Skinningrove and towed the vessel back to Runswick Bay. There was a small piece in the Whitby Gazette:

A Bridge Day, held on Sunday 27th June to raise funds for the Runswick Bay Rescue Boat made £809.

The event was held in Hinderwell Village Hall where ten tables played duplicate bridge in the morning and afternoon with a superb lunch in between. The bridge was kindly directed by Vicky Hirst.

The day finished with prize giving and a raffle. The buffet lunch was provided by sponsors and helpers. Joyce Turner and Barbara Todd won the first prize of the Day Lewis Perpetual Trophy and bridge sets. The other prize, for valiant effort, was won by Nan Jackson and Margaret Cook. Jenny Hunt won the prize for last trick won with a two. The first raffle prize was drawn by Joe White who chose a side of Gammon kindly donated by R H Ford, Butcher of Glaisdale.

The Chairman of Runswick Bay Rescue Boat Committee, Tom Bottomley, thanked Karen Sewell, Jan Walker, Sue Cheeseley and Mo Metcalfe as well as the many other contributors and helpers and said that the event was a great success.

The 2010 season is well underway and our new flag system and duty roster is working well. The crew have been training hard, as they have throughout the winter, and have handled their first incidents of the year with the professionalism and aplomb that we have come to expect of them. Some of our new helmsmen got their first experience in command of a live situation and did us proud.

We have also been very active on the fundraising and public relations front. There is a new range of RBRB merchandise on sale in the village (the 2010 collection) thanks to a newly formed merchandising sub-committee who have been out and about touting the wares and doing a smashing job.

In the picture, left, the Spirit of Runswick is on display at the annual Triumph rally at Runswick Bay Campsite on the weekend of 14th-16th May 2010 where the 2010 collection was on sale. Left to right, is Julie Metcalfe (merchandising), Lottie, Sarah Arnold (merchandising and Crew), Ben Metcalfe (Helmsman) and Lewis, Tom Bottomley (Helmsman) and Max, Tom Dobson (Helmsman), our winner of the dry suit competition, Andy ‘the hat’ Monaghan (Crew Leader) and Tom Glasby (Helmsman). Behind the camera is Claire Bottomley, the third member of the merchandising team.

A mention must go to Tom Dobson (yes, there are a lot of Tom’s) who carried out his first two rescues as Helmsman on the weekend of 5th-6th June 2010. It was a busy weekend on the beach and, in addition to the usual range of questions and assists, there were two instances of early season, over-wintered, engines playing hard ball with their owners on first outing. The weather was reasonably clement and there was no immediate risk to life or limb but this remains an essential part of the service that RBRB provides to the many users of the coastal waters around Runswick Bay.

Now would also be a good time to make a plug or two for upcoming events – do please make a note in your diaries of the Runswick Bay Rescue Boat Weekend which will take place on 6th-8th August 2010. There are still a few tickets available for the Beef Supper on the Friday evening (although they are selling fast) and there will be the usual display and stalls and, back by popular demand, the bell boat race. We hear Her Majesty’s Coastguard may be entering a team this year.

The Whitby Gazette ran a two page feature on RBRB. Click on the images below to open the full pages.

The inaugural, re-instated, annual crew dinner was held on 26th March at the Runswick Bay Hotel. The crew dinner is held at the start of each season as part of the Rescue Boat’s preparation for the year ahead and it proved to be a great evening with 25 crew and guests attending, awards being given and no shortage of fun and frolics.

There were 9 certificates awarded to crew who achieved their RYA Basic Navigation and Safety Certificates during the winter and no less than 6 crew achieved promotion to Helmsman after a winter of hard training and assessment. Our thanks to Andy Monaghan, Crew Leader, for all of his efforts over the last 6 months and for organising such a super event.

A very special award was given to Simon Blackburn – his own personal helmet with a new anti-collision system built into it. We suggest you ask Simon for exact details about the reason for this award and, although perhaps a little unfair, it was accepted with good humour.

All crew received their 2010 crew shirts and the flag was flying the following morning over the lifeboathouse as the new ‘on duty’ system started. With Easter only a week away, and the weather improving, we are expecting the Bay to get more and more busy from now onwards.

There’s still a little bit of work to do, but it’s official, the new RBRB website has gone live this week. We will be looking to refine, improve, add to and generally keep the thing lively, informative and current.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, comments (good or bad) then please let us know.