HUNDREDS of people lined the harbourside in Weymouth to bid an emotional farewell to Portland Coastguard.

To mark the end of an era, organisers enlisted more than 50 boats of all shapes and sizes to conduct a lap of honour of the harbour to salute the coastguards and the operations centre, which will be closed down on Monday and moved to Fareham.

Starting from the Pleasure Pier area, on the signal of a cannon firing from Nothe Fort at 5pm, the flotilla moved up the harbour until they got outside the coastguards operations centre, which is on Weymouth harbourside.

They then applauded and saluted the staff at the centre, who were standing by the windows of the building, before turning around heading back down towards Pleasure Pier.

Crowds lined the edge of the harbour to watch and applaud the special flotilla, with some crew on board the boats lighting flares and the Weymouth-based Dorset Wrecks band all singing on board one of the boats, keeping the throng of people entertained.

Weymouth and Portland Mayor Kate Wheller was on board the first boat with a number of coastguard staff.

Mayor Wheller said: “I wanted to say my own personal goodbye on what is such a sad occasion.

“It's very sad, it's the end of a very long era.

“With the maritime history here, it has always been very reassuring to know the Coastguards were there in case anything went wrong.

“I know a lot of people owe their life to them following rescues and this send off shows the esteem people hold for them and that people are very anxious to say their goodbyes to them.”

The special flotilla was organised by Roger MacPherson, who said the flotilla and the reaction from the members of the public showed how important the Coastguards and the operation centre was to the borough.

Mr MacPherson said: “I am very impressed with the turn out of the crowds considering we only had a week to organise it.

“The town has probably had an inkling that the coastguard would be taken away from them but it's now starting to sink in.

“The coastguards are part of the community here, they know every nook and cranny in the local area and that local knowledge in search and rescue missions will be sorely missed.

“It's very sad.”

Check out our picture gallery of the flotilla here.