Kirkcudbright RNLI is hailing the success of inshore lifeboats.
This year marks the 60th year since they were introduced and since then they have saved more than 30,000 lives across the UK.
Kirkcudbright has had inshore lifeboats since 1989 and one current crew member, Robert Ross, served on the last all-weather lifeboat and the inshore lifeboats that followed during his 40 year career.
Robert, who became senior helm in 2003, is also the crew’s lifeboat training co-ordinator.
He said: “The technology and performance of the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat keep crew safe in the most challenging of rescues.
“The introduction of the inshore lifeboat to the lifeboat fleet changed the whole ethos, taking us from an eight-knot Oakley all-weather lifeboat to a 30-knot capability allowing rescues to be carried out in half the time, with less tidal restrictions.”
When Robert began helping out as a 15-year-old it was on the Oakley Class Mary Pullman Lifeboat. It was taken out of service in 1989 to be replaced with the Atlantic 21. It was a challenging time for the station but the new inshore lifeboat very quickly proved its worth.
Two relief Atlantic 21s were on station for a couple of years – B-523 Blue Peter 1 and B-525 Spix’s Macaw, which was launched 14 times.
The permanent B-585 Peter and Grace Ewing followed and served the station well with 139 launches and 11 lives saved before it was replaced in 2006.
The year before, Robert had taken part in the evaluation trials of the new Atlantic 85 class lifeboat – an improvement on the Atlantic 21. It can reach speeds of 35 knots and launch in daylight in force seven and at night force six. In 2006, B-814 Sheila Stenhouse came on service at Kirkcudbright RNLI where it remains to the present day, having received several refits over the years.
The inshore lifeboat has enabled the charity’s volunteer crews to carry out their lifesaving work closer to shore, in areas inaccessible to other lifeboats in the fleet.
