Fundraising appeal for life-saving team

Vital cash needed for Fleet Bay Inshore Rescue team

- SHARON LIPTROTT

Fleet Bay Inshore Rescue Service and HM Coastguard representatives are keen to see the funding raised and new boat on the water this spring

A vital Galloway lifesaving charity serving Fleet and Wigtown Bay this week launched a major fundraising appeal to get back on the water.

If they can raise £61,000 as soon as possible, it will help the volunteer-led Fleet Bay Inshore Rescue Service - which has saved hundreds of lives during the past 50 years - return to full operational service this year.

The cash will ensure its crews are fully trained, insured, and equipped to modern standards approved by the RNLI when they respond if lives are at risk in the Bay.

The volunteers and supporters have already raised £78,980 within the past year towards their £140,000 target and now the charity has launched its “Getting Back on the Water in 2026” appeal to raise the remaining cash needed.

Duncan McConchie, a trustee and crew member at FBIRS, said: “Our volunteers give their time freely to keep others safe and have done since 1974, but we rely entirely on public support to operate.

“This appeal is about securing the future of an essential local service - one that no one wants to need, but everyone is grateful exists.”

The service developed last century out of concern at the lack of immediate rescue facilities within Fleet Bay, which always attracts a large number of locals, visitors and water sports enthusiasts.

The community felt that lives could be in jeopardy without a permanent rescue boat stationed somewhere within the Bay.

It led to the original rescue boat - an Avon Sea rider with a 25hp tiller steer - being purchased from donations from the caravan park owners and was stationed at Mossyard from July 1974 until October 2003, when it was replaced with a 4.1m Zodiac Pro with a 50hp centre console boat.