Speaking jointly, Mulberry Divers, Selsey Bill SAC and Selsey RNLI have described near misses that have gone on for 'years', involving 'several types of craft that operate off East Beach'.
In mid-June, one group of divers placed themselves 'without SMBs directly in front of the [lifeboat] launching ramp'.
'The Tyne Class All Weather Lifeboat was unable to respond to a Mayday call due to the divers,' said the group.
'Although the RNLI shore crew tried to attract the divers' attention by banging on the station structure, this was not successful and they had to wait about 10 minutes before they were able to launch the lifeboat.'
Fortunately, the Mayday had come from a yacht 'which had run aground and no lives were in immediate danger'. The divers were also lucky in that, had their bubbles not been spotted, they 'could have had a 25-tonne lifeboat coming down on top of them'.
Visiting divers are asked to be aware that Selsey's is a 'working beach, more akin to a small harbour than your usual tourist beach'. They should always deploy SMBs, and not dive around the end of the lifeboat slip under any circumstances.
Divers in the area are asked to 'surface immediately' if they hear the emergency signal used by the RNLI shore crew to warn them that the lifeboat is to launch.
The signal is three loud bangs on the lifeboat station structure, followed by a pause and three further loud bangs.
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