BUMPER crowds turned out for this year's Poole Lifeboat Station Open Day.

The event, at the RNLI lifeboat station on Poole Quay, packed them in.

Poole Lifeboat volunteer operations manager Paul Glatzel said: "What a fantastic day we are quite overwhelmed by the ebb and flow of people and we hope that they all enjoyed themselves.

"It was also good to have our emergency service rescue partners with us, the marine police, fire and rescue crew, the coastguards and our community safety teams and lifeguards.

"We showcased some of our rescue scenario’s and gave visitors an insight to the work that we do, whilst raising some funds to help to keep our boats afloat, enabling us to save lives at sea."

The event also included traditional side stalls, games, souvenirs, a tombola and The Beach Buddies Seaside Puppet Theatre.

The RNLI Choir sang and the station welcomed Poole Mayor Cllr Marion Le Poidevin, who was escorted by Poole Lifeboat chairman Chris Holloway.

Mr Glatzel said: "A huge thank you, to all the business that supported us with raffle prizes, Sunseeker for the use of the carpark and thank you to all the visitors that came along.

"Not forgetting our volunteers, who have been working tirelessly on the run up organising the event and on the day, they collectively made it all come together.

"The pennies are still being counted at this time but it looks like a bumper amount was raised."

Though the boats didn’t launch some of the volunteers were on hand late on after the event, while walking home along the quay they deployed throw lines to get a broken down motor cruiser safely alongside.

The vessel with five people on-board was drifting between the quays.