WHEN the Institution designed two new types of motor life-boat (as described in previous issues of The Life- boat) sufficiently light to be launched off a carriage or the open beach it became possible to use motor power at a large number of stations where it had previously been impossible, but there still remained a number of stations which presented a double problem.

Their flat foreshores made it impossible to build launching slipways, and as they had no safe anchorage for the life-boat to lie afloat, they could not be equipped with the heavier types of motor life-boat. At the same time the conditions at sea required a larger and heavier life-boat than the light 35 feet 6 inches types for launching off the beach. Until this problem could be solved it meant that at some of the most important stations on the coast, such as Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and the stations nearest the Goodwin Sands, pulling and sailing life-boats could not be replaced by motor life-boats.

This difficulty has been overcome by the design of a new type, which is a development of the famous Norfolk and Suffolk type. She has the old flat bottom which enables a boat to be launched in a fairly upright position, and she has buoyant ends which enable her to lift over the surf more quickly than is the case with the other stable types of life-boat which do not self- right.

This new type is the Beach type.

It is 41 feet long by 12 feet 3 inches broad. The 45 feet 6 inches Watson (cabin) life-boat weighs, on service, with crew and gear on board, 20J tons.

The light type of motor life-boat weighs only 7| tons. The Beach type weighs just under 16 tons. While the Watson (cabin) type requires a slipway for launching, and the light type can be taken into the sea on a carriage, or can be run down the beach on skids, the Beach type is launched on a semi- permanent slipway of rollers laid on the beach, being too heavy for launching on the loose skids.

She is built with a double skin of mahogany, keel of teak, ribs of Cana- dian rock-elm, stem and stern posts of English oak, and air-cases of Columbian red cedar, which is now being used instead of white deal as being a lighter wood. She is divided into seven water- tight compartments and is fitted with 135 air-cases. She has sixteen relieving scuppers, and these can free her entirely of water in 22 seconds.

She is a twin-screw boat, having two 6-cylinder high-speed engines, running at 3,300 revolutions a minute, as com- pared with 1,200 revolutions a minute in the 60 h.p. and 40 h.p. engines used in the larger types of life-boat. These are the same engines as used in the two light types. They develop 35 h.p.

each, with a combined self-contained reduction and reverse gear, giving a propeller speed of 900 revolutions a minute. They are in a water-tight compartment, and are themselves water-tight, so that they would con- tinue running even when entirely sub- merged, for the air-intakes are well above the water-line, even when the boat herself is water-logged. The maxi- mum speed is just over 7£ knots, and, as with all the Institution's motor life-boats, there is a great reserve of power, so that the maximum speed can be maintained even in very severe weather.

The boat carries 112 gallons of petrol and the engine's consumption is just over 7 gallons an hour at full speed, so that she can travel 122 miles at full speed without refuelling.

She is fitted with a medium sail- spread of two lugs and a jib, which can be used either with the engines or as auxiliary power in the event of any failure of the engines. She carries a line-throwing gun and an electric searchlight, and is lighted by electricity.

She has a crew of ten men and in rough weather can take eighty-five people on board.

The first of this type was built in 1931 and stationed at Aldeburgh (Suffolk). This year two more have been completed and are both on the coast of Kent, at Dungeness and Walmer..