Women are increasingly making waves in many traditionally male-dominated industries and now an independent Suffolk lifeboat is charting a new course by using its first all-female crew.
Never before in the 27-year history of Felixstowe Coast Patrol & Rescue had a vessel been crewed exclusively by women.
Earlier this month the three-strong team of coxswain Marie Worley and crew members Sally Hesketh and Isabel Lelijveld took to the waters off the Suffolk coast.
Now the trio are hoping to inspire others to follow in their wake as the service seeks to diversify its volunteer base and encourage representation from different groups.
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When the service started in 1997, none of the volunteers was female, but now seven of the 35 volunteers are women and the number is rising.
Isabel said: "We are trying to open up to more different groups and this greater participation means more help for the services and that is a good thing.
"The more volunteers we can attract, the more help we can get so we need people from different backgrounds.
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Unlike crews with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), teams from the independent Felixstowe service are on constant patrol between 9am and 5pm and can respond to anything that happens in the water because they have already launched.
In 2023, the service saved six lives and helped 55 people at incidents, which included yachts with engine failures and vessels that had run aground in mud and others that needed towing back to shore.
Patrol areas included along the rivers Orwell, Deben and Stour, as well as the Harwich area.
Explaining the rise in female participation, Isabel said: "You have got to see it to be it and you get inspired by others to get involved."
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She found her role particularly rewarding, especially when she helped to keep the public safe, whether saving lives on the water or by training others to keep safe in the water.
"For me, I am really proud of what we do and it is a really good opportunity to represent our crew in that way as an all-women's crew.
"It is really rewarding to know that we make a strong contribution to that public safety through our presence on the water and our community in training others around us to keep them safe," Isabel said.
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