Aviva Community Fund provided £3,372 of match funding
York Rescue Boat - Rescue Vehicle Appeal
York, England, United Kingdom
Aim
To help enhance our teams search and rescue capability as we help to make York's waterways and rivers a safer place
About York Rescue Boat
York Rescue Boat is an independent lifeboat and search and rescue team based in York. Since 2015 we have been working tirelessly to make the Rivers and waterways of York a safer place. We provide both boat and foot patrols of the rivers every Friday and Saturday night as well as having a team on call 24/7 365 days a year to respond to emergencies alongside the police and fire service. In 2020 our volunteers responded to 52 call outs, these include incidents such as searching for missing persons, concerns for safety and rescuing persons from the water. At the time of writing our team has responded to 6 call outs so far in 2021. We also provide a Defra certified flood and swift water rescue team that not only covers York but can also be tasked to provide assistance anywhere in the country and our team were deployed during the flooding in January.
Incident Support Vehicle
With the help of the Aviva Community Fund, we are hoping to replace our ageing incident support vehicle. Purchased second hand in 2015 and converted to our needs by our volunteers our current Ford Transit has served us well. However with age also comes to an increasing maintenance bill and the current vehicle no longer meets our needs and we need your help.
Our new incident support vehicle will support the team both on our regular patrols as well as at incidents across York and North Yorkshire. The first stage of this project will be the procurement of a new long-wheelbase van. We are still considering the options for our van and taking into account a number of factors such as maintenance, fuel economy and emissions to ensure we get the best value for money.
Once purchased the vehicle will undergo professional specialist conversion and feature the following:
Digital mapping linking to our lifeboat we will be able to coordinate search and rescue taskings with ease as well as the ability to track our boats, vehicles and team members. Not only will this make our searching more efficient it will help to increase the safety of our team in challenging conditions.
State of the art digital radio will allow our team to coordinate not only with each other but also with other search and rescue teams
Built-in Generator for running our IT and communications equipment
Charging point and storage space for our lifesaving equipment
Crew welfare facilities included a heated crew area, hand washing facilities and a hot water boiler
Every Penny Counts
As a charity, we receive no Government funding and it costs approximately £25,000 a year to keep the Team operational. Vehicles and large projects require additional and specific funding. The procurement and conversion of our new incident support vehicle is estimated to be around £75,000
We appreciate that the ongoing pandemic has caused financial uncertainty for everyone, which is why we’re so grateful for any and all support we receive; every penny really does count. Thank you.
This project successfully funded on 23rd March 2021