St Ives Lifeboat Station Records Its Busiest Year in 2025

St Ives RNLI is facing its busiest year on record after more than 85 service launches in 2025, more than double the 34 call outs in 2024. The rise mirrors the wider trend across the UK and Ireland, where crews are responding to more incidents involving swimmers, paddleboarders, kayakers and people experiencing mental health crises.

A Year of Relentless Demand

Despite the pressure, the volunteer crew in St Ives have continued to step in whenever needed, from launching and recovering the lifeboats to the many unseen hours of training, fundraising and public safety work.

Dickon Berriman, Area Operations Manager, said:
‘We experienced a very busy summer around our coast with warm, settled weather providing the opportunity to enjoy the beaches and waters around St Ives. Inevitably this led to an increase in incidents. The St Ives Lifeboat team have risen to the challenge with courage and commitment. There is a lot to maintaining this service which goes unseen, hours of training, restrictions of living on a pager and disruption to family life. Our volunteers are incredible as are their families who support what they do.’

RNLI Urges Extra Care at Sea

The RNLI continues to remind everyone to take extra care in the water, to respect the sea and to follow safety advice before heading out. In an emergency, people should call 999 or 112 and ask for the coastguard.

Volunteer crew member and Water Safety Delivery Support, Joel Ninnes, added:
‘If you’re planning on enjoying a sea swim or cold-water dip over the festive period, you should always carry a means of calling for help. This could be a mobile phone in a waterproof pouch. Remember, if you don’t have any mobile phone signal, don’t panic. You can still try calling 999 or 112, even if your own mobile phone network has no coverage. Your phone will try to connect to any other network available.’

Volunteers Needed

The release ends with a call for new volunteers. St Ives Lifeboat Station is recruiting for both boat and shore crew roles, offering people the chance to join the team, learn new skills and support the lifeboat service.

More details can be found at RNLI.org/RecruitingNow.

📷St Ives RNLI all-weather lifeboat, Nora Stachura, and inshore lifeboat, Donald Dean - Credit: RNLI/Russell Bush