PRECIOUS minutes could be saved in rescue operations around Morecambe Bay's challenging terrain if a new craft is adopted by local lifesaving crews.

Low tides in the Bay, which force lifeboats to waste vital moments circling sandbanks to reach people, could be crossed by the Grifton 450TD - currently being tested as a new rescue vessel.

The 7.6 metre (25ft) hovercraft is believed to work well over other difficult terrain as well, such as mudflats and frozen lakes, which also delay waterborne rescue crafts around the Bay area.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is assessing the Grifton 450TD, which costs £80,000 and has a top speed of 30 knots, in a three-month trial at its headquarters in Poole, Dorset.

John Beaty, honorary secretary at Morecambe's RNLI Lifeboat Station, said the six-seater vessel would particularly help in low-water rescues, such as at Sunderland Point.

"That is our main problem.

We have to go around sandbanks and mudflats if the water is not high enough," Mr Beaty told the Gazette.

But he stressed it was "premature" to celebrate a new rescue vehicle before the trial was over.

He added: "I am sure this craft will make rescues less difficult.

We haven't lost any lives, but sometimes it has been very difficult to get to people because of having to go the long way around.

We would also be able to help get equipment to people."

Hugh Fogarty, RNLI staff officer operations, is in charge of the operational aspects of the project.

He said RNLI lifeboats often had to operate in estuaries of close inshore, where the terrain was difficult for waterborne craft.

"Hovercraft could supply the solution and help us save more lives and reach people more quickly.

We have two requirements - that it should be able to work in different terrain and that our volunteer crews will be able to master 'flying' it."