RECENTLY qualified Bude Lifeboat crew member Sam Jourdain attended his first call out on Sunday, April 11.

Crew members were alerted to a request to launch the boat at 1.05pm. The boat was launched by shore help Jeff Weaver and Sam together with helm Robin Bale and crew member Mark Palmer set out on a search which was requested by the police and instigated by HM Coastguard Falmouth.

Also on scene was the Rescue Water Craft crewed by Liam Sharpe and Dave Hunt. After an hour and half search of the Longbeak to Widemouth Bay area the crew were stood down on a false alarm.

False alarm or not this shout gave Sam, who commenced training with the crew in 2008, experience of his first call-out and search of the area that Bude lifeboat covers.

Sam has undergone extensive training since joining the crew; this training included a week long course at the RNLI College in Poole and a rigorous first aid course recently completed by the crew.

He is the youngest of the crew members at Bude station having started training aged just 17 and being fully fledged after just over a year of intensive training.

Chris Cloke, the Lifeboat Operations Manager, said it was particularly pleasing for the station to have Sam as a raw recruit and see him progress through his training to become a competent crew member.

Bude's inshore lifeboat is crewed entirely by

volunteers from the local area, and on average it costs the RNLI £1,214 per year to train each member. Anyone interested in volunteering for the charity can visit the station on a Thursday evening from 5.30pm or Sunday mornings from 10am when the crew are usually training.