Motorcycle racer Guy Martin will join the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) crews at Humber in the new series of Guy Martin: Proper Jobs, which airs on U&Dave at 8pm on Sunday 25th January.
The charity’s volunteers will feature in the first episode of the series, which will see Guy donning RNLI yellow all-weather kit and boarding the 17m Severn class lifeboat as he embarks on three days of lifesaving training and learning from the dedicated crews who are ready to save lives at sea at a moment’s notice.
RNLI Humber Coxswain, Sean Cheston, said: ‘We certainly put Guy through his paces – with only three days he needed to pick things up quickly. Across the three days we spent more than 20 hours at sea. After he’d got to grips with some core skills which we covered first, we ramped up the training to a full-on search and rescue mission, searching for a simulated missing person and evacuating the casualty to the HM Coastguard Rescue Helicopter.
‘To top it all off, during filming we got a real distress call to a vessel which was drifting in a very busy shipping area and needed assistance. Guy seamlessly got involved as part of the crew to help them back to safety.’
Guy Martin said: ‘Spending time with the crew at Humber RNLI was brilliant. I was a very small gear in that machine, but I loved being part of it. Plenty of craic, plenty of tea to drink, loads of stuff to learn. From the very start on day one I was getting stuck in, putting ropes away, keeping things tidy and then the next thing you know I’m steering the boat and I’m mooring it up – you’re never going stop learning on that job. I had a lot of respect for all of the crew. So professional. They all look out for each other.
‘The RNLI is a charity and a massive 97% of its people are volunteers! Completely reliant on public donations – without the generosity of donations and legacies we wouldn’t have the RNLI. What great people!’
Sean added: ‘By the end of the training, he’d really proved himself and picked everything up really quickly – I’d happily enrol Guy as one of our volunteers’.
Throughout the episode, Guy also finds out more about the motivation of the dedicated lifeboat crews, understanding the commitment they give, the special occasions they have to sacrifice and the support they give each other through difficult times.
The RNLI episode kicks off the four-part series which airs on U&Dave at 8pm on Sunday 25th January and on the streaming service, U.
