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Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Its eye-catching boathouses and distinctive blue-and-orange vessels are part of the landscape of the British seaside — a reassuring backdrop to many a summer holiday. Yet, while the RNLI is almost certainly one of Britain’s best-loved charities, it’s probably fair to say that few of us actually appreciate the organisation’s scope. It operates 500 boats from 237 lifeboat stations dotted around Britain’s rocky coastline. It designs, builds and maintains its own vessels and, while its crews are largely made up of volunteers, it employs a host of engineers and naval architects charged with maintaining and updating a fleet that has to cope with some of the toughest conditions in the ocean. With recent weather providing a timely reminder of just how tough these conditions can be, the RNLI is going through a particularly exciting phase - the production and roll-out of the Shannon, its most advanced ever all-weather lifeboat. Designed to replace the Mersey-class lifeboat, the Shannon is arguably one of the charity’s most ambitious projects. Many aspects of its design represent a radical step forward, and the production of 50 vessels is the largest single run in the RNLI’s history. A prototype began sea trials around 18 months ago and the first vessel will be delivered to Dungeness lifeboat station in February. Six other boats are currently at various stages of construction at the Berthon Boatyard and the RNLI-owned company SAR Composites, both of which are based in Lymington on the UK’s south coast. Steve Austen, the RNLI’s head of engineering support, explained that the vessel has been designed to meet a number of demanding operational requirements. It has to be capable of 25kts; it must be able to right itself if it capsizes; it must be able to operate for up to 10 hours in the worst conditions the sea can throw at it and it has got to last for 50 years. “Everything we do — from the design of the hull through to the seating and even down to how the windscreen wipers are attached — is on the assumption that it’ll go out into that 16m sea and will come back,” said Austen. It has also been designed with the limitations of a volunteer crew in mind. “Fewer than 10 per cent have any kind of maritime background,” he added. “You have to make sure you take that into account so that the boat is as intuitive as possible to use.” In technology terms, perhaps the most original feature is the use of twin water jets to power the boat. Chosen because of the need to operate the boat in shallower water, the jets also make the boat faster and more manoeuvrable than propeller-powered vessels. Peter Eyre, senior engineer on the Shannon project, explained that the improved performance stems from the moveable ‘buckets’ that alter the direction of each of the water jets and thus change the direction of the boat. The advantage over conventional propulsion systems is that the boat can be held in a neutral position regardless of the throttle settings. By changing the positions of the buckets and, therefore, the direction of the water jets, it can perform a range of manoeuvres that would put impossible strain on conventional systems. “You can turn the boat on the spot, move it sideways, or stop instantaneously from flat out,” said Eyre. “You’ve got ultimate control.” Another reason for choosing the water jets is that, like the boat it’s designed to replace, the Shannon will be launched from a carriage and the profile of the jets is ideal for this approach. As previously reported, Austen’s team has worked alongside engineers from Devon engineering company Supacat on the development of an advanced submersible tractor-borne carriage system that enables the boat to be launched more quickly than its carriage-launched forbears. The Shannon’s innovative launch and recovery system was designed by Devon firm Supacat. Another key technology is the Systems and Information Management System (SIMS) used to control the boat. Originally developed for the Tamar class all-weather lifeboat (which was launched in 2006) this system enables the crew to monitor, control and operate many of the boat’s key systems without leaving their seats. The seats themselves have also been specially designed, and equipped with a suspension system that helps the crew deal with the huge vertical slamming forces experienced in heavy seas. While all of these innovations make important contributions to the boat’s safety and performance, the Shannon’s bespoke hull shape is arguably its most decisive feature. After ruling out an off-the-shelf hull early in the project, Peter Eyre, the engineer responsible for the hull, set about developing a design that was carefully optimised to reduce the risk of both vertical and sideways slamming forces. It was, he explained, a difficult balancing act. Features such as a steeply angled bow that helps reduce vertical slamming can affect the stability and increase the risk of rolling and sideways slamming forces. While this is a problem on all boats, it was compounded on the Shannon due to its unconventional propulsion system and lower displacement. The resulting hull features a narrow bow designed to cut through the water which is counteracted by very wide aft sections that help keep the boat steady and upright. Severe slamming is further limited by steeper hull sections midway between the bow and the stern. Eyre’s design was settled on following testing of a 1/8-scale model in Chichester harbour. At this stage, a number of other existing designs were still in the running, “but the results,” said Eyre, “were surprising and persuasive: The new hull cut through the waves beautifully while remaining stable in rough conditions” he added. “When the results came out I thought bloody hell — we’ve seen a dramatic improvement.” Back on dry land, there’s been considerable innovation in the design and manufacturing processes, with an emphasis on upfront detailed design helping to shorten the project’s timescale. “Historically we’ve gone from concept design to prototype and then prototype to pre-production model,” said Austen, “but with this one we tried to put a lot more emphasis on detailed design so that the prototype was much closer to the production standard — we’ve effectively missed out a whole stage by doing that.” Production itself follows a lean process, with two-month tack times and a series of six separate slots for different build states. A number of key innovations have helped to streamline this process, explained Austen. For instance, the wheelhouse and hull are kept separate for as long as possible, enabling more engineers to work on the boat. The team has also figured out an improved way of eventually joining these two sections together, using a bonded joint rather than lots of over-laminating. The design and production strategy has been heavily influenced by the scale of the job. “With 50 boats being built in one go, this is the RNLI’s biggest ever production run and there has,” said Austen, “been great investment and attention to detail. All the time the guys have had in mind that 50-boat production run so have taken time to invest in jigs, tooling and production methods from the word go rather than thinking about it in small batches. The fact that the RNLI is its own customer has also had a huge bearing on the process. There’s simply no point trying to cut corners,” said Austen. “If you can see the 50-year through-life cost it puts you in a much better position to say it might cost me an extra £10,000 to build but I’m going to save £100,000 over the next five years by doing this. It really does give you the design freedom to make those changes and get the benefit.” Source : The Engineer Inside the RNLI's latest lifeboat RNLI's Fastest Lifeboat
Delve into the history of the RNLI through its timeline and discover key events and innovations in its history here.
Flying Lifeboats
Airborne Lifeboat at Broads Museum
Lifeboats (Taken from a Parliamentary Debate on 10th January 2023)
The RNLI was founded as the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Lives and Property from Shipwreck in 1824. In 1854, it changed its name to what we know it as today. Its main base is in Poole, Dorset. It has 238 lifeboat stations, and an active fleet of 431 lifeboats, which range from large, all-weather lifeboats to smaller inshore vessels. The impact of the RNLI’s work cannot be overestimated. Its operations have saved over 143,900 lives since 1824, and it is not just men who have been the heroes: Grace Darling became one of the Victorian era’s most celebrated heroines when, on 7 September 1838, she risked her life to rescue the stranded survivors of the wrecked steamship Forfarshire. Today, around 95% of the RNLI team are volunteers; they are around 5,600 crew members, 3,700 shore crew, including station management, 82 lifeguards, and 23,000 fundraisers. The scale of the RNLI’s contribution to search and rescue is immense. In 2021 alone, there were 8,868 lifeboat launches, 84 of which were in at least force 8 conditions, and 1,022 crew assemblies—a total of 9,890 taskings. That resulted in 12,903 people being aided, and 296 lives being saved. The RNLI’s work is not just about reacting when things go wrong, but reducing the need for search and rescue by educating and advising on dangers. RNLI water safety teams reached more than 27 million people in 2021 with essential messaging, undoubtedly saving more lives and keeping families together. The RNLI charity provides a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Across the entire UK, there are 238 lifeboat stations, 46 of them in Northern Ireland. There are also 240 lifeguard units on beaches, which gives an idea of the magnitude of the issue. I found this figure incredible: since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews have saved more than 142,700 lives. In addition to the RNLI, there are more than 50 independent lifeboat organisations that operate along the coastline and on inland waterways across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for the purpose of saving lives on the water. Those independent lifeboats are run primarily, if not entirely, by volunteers, and funded by local donations. The majority of those independent lifeboats are equipped, maintained and operated in accordance with the rescue boat code.
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