Helmsman Martin Croad and Tim Edwards gain new qualifications.
MEMBERS of Lyme Regis lifeboat crew are now ready to take the helm in a flooding crisis after taking on a new course.
RNLI volunteers Martin (Myrtle) Croad and Tim Edwards qualified as rescue boat operators and are now able to take charge of rescue operations during major floods.
The helmsmen were put through their paces during the course in Poole in order to gain their new qualification.
Martin has since been topping up his new skills after returning from a flood rescue exercise in Hayle, Cornwall.
The exercise, on a tidal estuary, tested RNLI crew members in their ability to cope in swift water situations.
It involved 17 RNLI crew members from the south-west.
Martin said: ”The exercise was very challenging and realistic. It was as close as we could get to the real thing in a serious flood.”
Unfortunately his fellow crew members Elliott Herbert and Tim Edwards were due to go on the Cornwall exercise, but both had good reasons to miss it.
Tim was recovering from a back injury, and Elliott was standing by to become a father to baby Millie Rose born to his partner Laura.
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