Lifeboats rescued 230 people off Yorkshire coast last year

One of the busiest stations in the north of England, Whitby saw more rescues than anywhere else in Yorkshire, with its lifeboats launching 34 times and making 63 rescues.

Second was Humber with 41 rescues and Flamborough with 35.

The charity is urging people to take basic precautions to keep safe - including carrying a means of calling for help and knowing how to use it.

Overall, the lifeboat rescue statistics are slightly down on 2014, when Yorkshire’s RNLI lifeboats launched 197 times and rescued 238 people.

Whitby RNLI coxswain Mike Russell said their station had been “very quiet”, possibly because the safety message was getting through. The average summer weather could also have been a factor.

Whitby’s two lifeboats launched in September to rescue an exhausted father and daughter who had been in the water in Robin Hood’s Bay for 45 minutes and were struggling to keep their heads above the water.

Mr Russell said on that occasion “hand on heart” they could say they had saved lives. “If we had taken any longer there would have been fatalities without a doubt,” he said.

The RNLI is the official charity of the 2016 Tour de Yorkshire, which runs from Friday April 29 to Sunday May 1 with a finish in Scarborough. All money raised through the partnership with the Tour de Yorkshire will be re-invested into RNLI activity in the county.