Jurassic Aqua Sports in Dorset has made its usual contribution to festive cheer among scuba divers with the 2025 Christmas fundraiser for its local lifeboat station.
The dive-centre’s fifth annual Santa Dive took place from its boat Waverider on Sunday, 14 December and raised £1,209 for Weymouth RNLI – bringing to well over £7,000 the amount it has collected over the past five years.
Conditions were not ideal for mid-December dives thanks to south-west winds, so the group stayed on the less-exposed side to explore the wreck of the Hartlepool, a merchant ship built in 1932 and torpedoed by a German E-boat during World War Two.
Lying 12m deep to the south of Weymouth harbour, this shipwreck is rarely visited by divers, according to centre director David Collins.
“The bow was salvaged and the rest of the vessel remains on the seabed and is well broken up, because heavy explosives cleared the wreckage to keep approaches into Weymouth harbour clear of obstruction,” he told Divernet. However, the site also acts as a lively nursery for fish and conger eels.
“Vis wasn’t great at less then 1m, but it didn’t put our Santas off. Most stayed down for over 40 minutes, and the harder Santas were down for an hour!”
Christmas cheer
Restored by pasties and hot chocolate, the Father Christmases went on to dive three wrecks for the price of one: a D-Day landing craft, Bombardon unit and VIC lighter.
Having enjoyed superior vis of up to 2m this time, they followed the dive with hot mince pies and more hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and marshmallows, before regrouping full of joy and goodwill in Portland Marina’s Salt pub for the RNLI Christmas Santa raffle.
“A massive thank-you to all our sponsors: AP Diving, Underwater Explorers, O’Three and BSAC Portland Marina, who kindly donated prizes, and for all the divers who took part,” said Collins.
If that winter’s diving day out sounds good to you, next year’s Christmas Charity Santa Dive in aid of the RNLI has already been scheduled for 12 December. You can book a place now through Jurassic Aqua Sports, or email WaveriderDiveCharter@gmail.com
