Crew's farewell to beloved lifeboat after 30 years

About 100 people lined a pier to say farewell to a beloved lifeboat that has helped save 27 lives during its 30 years of service.

Samarbeta, based at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Lifeboat Station since 1996, originally replaced a Waveney-class vessel called Barham.

"She has had an extremely busy life. She has now come to the end of her life. She's been a very good workhorse all that time and had very little go wrong with her," said Capt Lindsey Wigmore.

Samarbeta, an RNLI Trent-class lifeboat, was launched on service 293 times and, as well as saving lives, helped more than 400 people. She spent 747 hours on service calls.

Speaking to BBC Look East, Wigmore said the crew had "a few tears" in their eyes.

"She will hopefully go into the relief fleet now, so she could still be sent around the country when other boats need work done," he added.

A newer Shannon-class lifeboat has replaced Samarbeta.

Dave Mason, former coxswain, was on one of Samarbeta's biggest missions in 1996, just months after she had begun service.

Mason said the crew had got a call that a yacht with six people on board was in trouble about 28 miles north-east of Great Yarmouth.

He said one man had a suspected broken neck. A helicopter carrying a doctor had also been scrambled.

"As we got further offshore... the conditions worsened," he added.

"We had to come around to turn the vessel to run with the weather.

"We came back around to begin the long haul back to Yarmouth, with the yacht in tow, which took a further six hours."

They did not get back until 16:30 BST. The casualty was taken to hospital.

"We were all very new to the boat. She done us proud and she served the rest of the crew very well."

His son, Andy Mason, coxswain, began work on the lifeboat as a teenager, inspired by his dad.

"I joined when I was 17 and I remember the Samarbeta first came when I was 12, so it's quite sad.

"Seeing my dad run out at silly times of the day and night - coming down here and seeing him going on the boat, I just wanted to be a part of it."

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