Teignmouth’s new lifeboat, Claude and Kath, embarked on her first rescue mission at the weekend after arriving in the town last month.

The Teignmouth Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) volunteer crew responded to a request for assistance from HM Solent Coastguard at 00.41 on Friday morning (December 20) as part of a multi-agency operation.

Dave Matthews (Helm), James Stoyle, Sean Bromfield and Rachel Palmer launched the Atlantic 85 Lifeboat with the support of the volunteer launch authority, shore crew and tractor driver in the early hours of Friday for the first time since the new lifeboat arrived at the station on 13 November.

The RNLI did not provide further details about the nature of the call out.

Although Claude and Kath is the same class of lifeboat as the previous lifeboat, The Two Annes, it features the latest in search and rescue equipment.

‘The boat handles well, you can feel the difference in improvements that have been made,’ said Dave. ‘It’s a fantastic resource in enabling us to save lives at sea’.

Volunteers from Teignmouth RNLI last launched on service on Saturday 2 November with The Two Annes Atlantic 85 lifeboat and her volunteer crew Pete Shillabeer (Helm), Sean Bromfield, Andy Case and Paul Carpenter.

Pete said ‘it was strange coming back into the boathouse in a way, knowing at the time that that might well be the last tasking for The Two Annes, she had served the station well, helping our volunteers to save many lives over her 18 years on service’.

Sean Bromfield was volunteer crew on both the final service shout for The Two Annes and the first pager call for Claude and Kath. ‘Responding to the pager was like any other time before,’ Sean said. ‘Knowing we have the latest in search and rescue assets gives us the best chance possible in doing what we set out to do: saving lives at sea.’