PORT Isaac Rowing Club gathered together with lifeboat crew to present a £250 cheque in support of the RNLI new lifeboat appeal.

Rowing club chairman Steve Hudspith presented the cheque to Port Isaac helmsman Matt Main, accompanied by chairman and key members of Port Isaac RNLI committee.

Chairman Bob Bulgin, in thanking the rowing club members for their generous donation, said: “If we ask our volunteer crew to go to sea in hostile conditions they need the best tools to do the job and support such as this enables us to achieve these objectives,” — pointing out that since the D Class Lifeboat came into service at Port Isaac in 1967, 682 launches have been made and 351 lives saved.

The name of this gig, ‘UNITY’, is synonymous with the relationship between rowing club members and RNLI crew, and committee as a number of them have been involved with both organisations, including five founder members of the rowing club gathered together in this group.

Port Isaac Lifeboat carries out sea going exercises with the rowing gigs from time to time and in fact a real life rescue of seven gig crew was carried out when the gig was overwhelmed by ground seas when re-entering harbour, further bonding the relationship between crew members of both RNLI and the rowing club.