Liferaft recovered by Selsy RNLI after breaking free from boat

An all-weather lifeboat (ALB) headed 10 miles south west of Selsey after receiving a radio call from a fishing boat saying they had found a large empty liferaft.

The (ALB) arrived on scene at 12.04pm and the fishing boat released the liferaft and left the scene. No identification markings could be found on first visual check so the liferaft which had about 200mm of water in it had to be hauled onto the lifeboat.

A spokesman for Selsey RNLI said ID numbers were found on the bottom of the 10 man liferaft and passed via radio to Coastguards.

At 12.30am the lifeboat started and expanding box search as requested by the Coastguards. The search was eventually stopped at 2.40pm and the ALB departed the area and returned to Station at 3.04pm

The days crew was made up of Coxswain Martin Rudwick, 2 nd Cox Dave Lamdin Mechanic Phil Pitham, Max Gilligan, Pip Skeet and Kristina Dolan.