I KNOW exactly what you're thinking... why on earth would anybody volunteer to give up a lazy Sunday afternoon to put themselves through this kind of torture?

Fortunately for the Fylde coast, St Annes RNLI crewmen -- Tom Stuart, Mark Highfield and Gary Dickerson -- have no such reservations.

Thanks to the generosity of Fylde fund-raisers -- who have now raised £23,000 for the Fylde Crew training Appeal -- these brave men were able to sail the Lytham Inshore Lifeboat out into River Ribble waters, off the St Annes coastline, for a spot of capsized boat training on Sunday, February 15.

After purposely overturning and toppling into the freezing, petrol-soaked tides the sodden trio practiced righting the vessel and draining it's engine before zooming off back to the comfort of the St Annes boathouse.

A crew spokesman said: "It might seem a bit of a mad thing to do coming out here on a lovely sunny afternoon to practice capsizing.

"Each of the guys is wearing around 15kg of life-saving kit which will swell to around double that weight when wet.

"But without this valuable training we'd never be able to make through some of our real emergency call-outs.

"On average we get to do this exercise only a few times a year but we have some kind of launched training once every fortnight.

"It is so important to keep practising and maintaining our skills because, at the end of the day, we are an ambulance service as well as a rescue crew.

"So if you get into difficulties off the coast it will be volunteers like these who come to your rescue."

National statistics show that, on average, somebody is saved by an RNLI crew member every 90 minutes in the UK and Ireland.

The appeal -- which is still £2,000 off its target -- is vital to continuing the work of the RNLI at Fleetwood, Blackpool and Lytham St Annes in ensuring that all volunteers are trained to the highest possible standards.

For further information about how to get involved in raising money for the Fylde Crew Training Appeal contact the RNLI regional office on 0161787 8779.