The St John Inshore Rescue boats are temporarily off-call as a search and rescue asset for the Guernsey Coastguard.

This is primarily because one of the boats is in the UK undergoing structural repair which has temporarily reduced our ability to respond to search and rescue calls on a 24/7 basis.

However, December is a quiet time of year for this St John Rescue asset so as the service has a reduced ability to respond, we have also taken the opportunity to review the operations of the inshore rescue boats as a whole which we are required to do from time to time.

During this time and to ensure cover is still available, contingency measures have been put in place by Guernsey Coastguard, in a similar way to when the island’s other search and rescue assets are also unavailable such as the Air Search.

St John, through the St John Ambulance & Rescue Service (SJARS) has provided Guernsey’s Inshore Rescue Boats for over 50 years. Over the past 12 months it has recruited expert volunteers from the community, to resource this service.   The time and effort that each volunteer puts into assisting St John is much appreciated.

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Posted: January 6, 2015