Delight as fun-packed Lytham St Annes RNLI open day raises more than £10,000

Lytham St Annes RNLI volunteers ae celebrating after this year’s Open Day at the all-weather boathouse in St Annes raised more than £10,000 for the charity.

That was the best total for several years at what is now the charity’s main local fund-raoser.

A spokesman thanked generous sponsors and supporters along with the hundreds of visitors who went along and enjoyed fun features galore, including visits from not just RNLI mascot Stormy Stan but also surprise guests Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper from Star Wars.

The event coincided with the St Annes Kite Festival and offered the chance to view the station's two lifeboats — the All-weather Shannon class Lifeboat (ALB) Barbara Anne and the Inshore Lifeboat (ILB) MOAM.

Crew members explained how the lifeboats operate, as well as the work involved in launching and recovering them, including the use of the station's launch and recovery vehicles and equipment.

There was live music throughout the day, featuring The Travelling Strings, the Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew, Roy Turner, Clive Marquis Carr and Matt Chadwick.

Zumba Suzy’s zumba display team also performed their routines and invited visitors to join in.

This year's Open Day came during an important year in the history of Lytham St Annes RNLI, marking the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Lytham Lifeboat Station.

It also marks 140 years since the worst disaster to befall the RNLI, when 27 lifeboatmen lost their lives in the Ribble Estuary in 1886.

The station is also continuing a project to commemorate its history through inscribed paving stones, a featured introduced to mark the 200th anniversary of the RNLI nationally two years ago.