Report: Katie AlstonPictures: Chris Davey

Several people were left seriously injured after a major chemical spill at Whitstable harbour on Saturday.

But it wasn’t a real-life emergency. It was Whitstable lifeboat station’s annual Dan Davies Trophy competition.

Two teams drawn from the station’s volunteer lifeboat crews competed in a realistic exercise testing their seamanship and first aid skills for a trophy awarded in memory of the station’s first honorary medical advisor, Dr Dan Davies, who died in 1977.

Today’s advisor Dr Terry Stefani created this year’s scenario with the action taking place on the harbour’s West Quay which, for the purpose of the exercise, had become an offshore installation.

The story was that a driver had suffered a hypoglycaemic attack and lost control of his crane.

The jib swung around, damaging chemical drums and hurting several of his colleagues.

The crews had to examine each casualty and prioritise everything from chemical burns to an abdominal injury.

Once the incident had been dealt with and the fake blood mopped up, a presentation ceremony was held at the boathouse.

Charlie Davies, son of Dr Davies, presented the trophy to this year’s winning team of helmsman Tony Martin and his crew of John Skinner, Stuart Enderby and Mike Dinley.

Dr Stefani said: “It is a unique event within the RNLI as no other station in the country goes quite to the lengths that we do here in simulating an incident.

“In perspective we have the most ridiculous of scenarios as only 10% of lifeboat calls nationally have a medical element but nevertheless our crews have dealt with the 'over-the-top’ situations superbly and the casualties injuries were incredibly well managed by the crew members taking part.”