Visiting RNLI in the UK

The IMRF (International Maritime Rescue Federation) conference is over and Cleeve is on his way back home. Mark Hughes and Andrew Ingram are heading to our 'big brother' and mentor, the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) in the UK, and will visit as many of their rescue bases as they can, as well as their head office in Poole. Rescue organisations around the world have a wonderful habit or sharing information and we take full advantage of the opportunity.News from Andrew: 'We visited three RNLI stations today. Above: a Severn class lifeboat moored at the Newhaven station. The Severn class is the biggest in the RNLI fleet at 17 meters. They have an operational speed of 25 knots and range of 250 nm. And the cost of replacing one? 2 million pounds. Unfortunately we could not get into the lifeboat stations which, like ours, are unmanned except for training and rescues. 'A little RNLI tender (below) is moored near the Eastbourne station to get the crew to their Tamar class lifeboat (above) for 'a shout' or what we term 'a call out'.