Lifeboat Station Tour (30 shots)

[MagicEvie]

Thought I'd share these. A neighbour of ours is Lifeboat crew. He very kindly agreed to take me and my boys for a tour today of the new £2.7m boat. Didn't realise he would let us on and in the actual thing itself! :weeee

Would have loved more time to concentrate on photo's but I was busy stopping 3 little boys from falling off the edge of the boat, letting of night illumination flares and setting the thing thundering down the slipway - Little boys do like to press buttons and flick switches to see what they do. Just like their Dad really ;)

Not sure what the protocol is for posting a lot of pics, if I'm wrong someone please tell me. Click on them and they'll enlarge.


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[Faz]

Nice pictures, what an incredible bit of kit. Amazing that they get by on mainly donations alone.

[MagicEvie]

Thanks Faz.

It is indeed incredible how they survive without Govt. funding. Quite remarkable.

The boat itself is a marvel really. Self righting if capsized (it's much bigger than the photo's suggest) Radar, location finding radio, water cannons (didn't get to try those :() It's all carbon fibre for strength and weight saving. No dials - it's all MFD's like an aircraft cockpit.

Has many cameras - both internally and externally, all of which are recorded to a HD along with the sound and crew conversations inside the wheelhouse (more like a cockpit really) - reminded me of commercial aircraft and their 'Black Boxes' :)

The level of thought that goes into these boats is staggering - they aren't ramshackle things. Simplicity and speed are key - the call comes in, the 7 crew scramble. Just two buttons enable the boat to get into the water - one starts the internal onboard power and engines, just as the other raises the doors to the slip way. Bonkers really!