Rescue service in urgent funds drive
The Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service (GAFIRS), an independent rescue service providing free marine rescue cover in the Solent, has launched an appeal to raise the £ 61,000 funding shortfall that will enable it to bring a new frontline lifeboat into service.
GAFIRS is one of the largest and busiest independent lifeboat services in the UK, tasked with 127 call outs last year by HM Coastguard. The organisation also has a dive rescue section, flood/ice rescue team, a medical team, runs a successful canoe lifeguard section and also advises and educates the public on matters of water safety.GAFIRS currently operates three frontline boats, one 7.4m and two 4.5m RIBs. With an increasing number of larger and heavier pleasure craft now operating in the Solent, GAFIRS has found it necessary to increase its rescue capacity. A project is nearing completion to bring the much more powerful and higher endurance 8.4m RIB, ‘The Jim and Molly Newton’, into service, thus allowing their current largest boat, ‘The David Brading’, to have a major refit after 15 years in service.
Estimated capital needed to acquire and house the new bigger boat is £280,000. GAFIRS has worked hard towards this target and the new boat is almost ready to enter service, but tenders to build the boathouse annex needed to house the boat are much higher than the original estimates. The £61,000 is the amount required by GAFIRS to finish their project.
Anyone able to help GAFIRS by way of company sponsorship or individual contributions should contact fundraising officer Joyce Thomas at Tel: 070 17031017 or Email: fundraising@gafirs.org.uk.
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