Cheers to various posters for the info.
I don't think all those (me included) necessarily thing this is a 'we should have had Nimrod' moment, an E3 has the manpower and kit to do a good job (imo) so it'd be foolish to claim this was somehow inferior to the job a Nimrod would have done.
Equally, although dinghies have been drooped in anger, it isn't a task that comes up on the majority of SAR sorties so again, no problem.
I think my main concern is that the aircraft was available by pure luck, pretty much (as I read it, I am prepared to be corrected if there's such an aircraft always available for SAR) - ie we still lack a dedicated asset that can get airborne pdq when a major event surfaces... and a major event WILL pop up one fine day.
Don't worry about Really Annoyed - his posts are always in the same spleen venting style, I think Pprune must be some sort of therapy.
Dave