Lv the spring of 1951 the Arts and Crafts Guild of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, held its annual exhibition. Included in it was a life-boat stall, with pictures of life-boats and a model being built of a 52-feet Barnett Stromness life-boat.

There were also life-boat collecting- boxes. The builder of the model was Mr. F. A. Gordon, and at his request it was agreed that it should bear the name of the 'St. Cybi, Civil Service No.

9, at that time the latest gift from the Civil Service Life-boat Fund. Mr.

Gordon then wrote that he would like to give the model to the Institution and said: "My fellow club members have shown great interest in life-boats of late, and are prepared to make any model or do repairs to any model that you should desire. In fact, we are entirely at your service." The club also asked if it could see "the real thing." A launch of the Selsey life-boat was arranged for it.

Unfortunately, the club arrived to find the life-boat out on service.

Presentation of the Model On May 18th of this year the Guild again held its annual exhibition and there Mr. Gordon's completed model of the St. Cybi was on view. It was formally presented to the Institution by the Grand Master of the Guild, and was received by Major C. Stewart Watson, R.M., the deputy secretary.

Mr. Gordon was presented with a silver tankard by the Guild as its out- standing member of the year.

The model was described in an article in News, the monthly journal of the Royal .A;rcraft Establishment.

"The model is built to a scale of half an inch to a foot, and has taken about one thousand two hundred hours to build. It is the work of one man, Mr. F. A. Gordon, of Met.

Research Flight, who is a keen ship- modeller, and who has every reason to be proud of this, his latest effort.

"The hull is plank-built, with planks of one-sixteenth inch obechi wood and ribs of one-quarter inch thick plywood laid on a keel of West African maho- gany. No nails are used anywhere throughout the model. All joints were pinned and glued, and the pins were subsequently removed when the glue had set. This type of construc- tion makes a very sound and work- manlike job. The use of many layers of filler and paint, and the expenditure of a lot of elbow grease in rubbing down each layer when dry, has pro- duced a wonderfully smooth finish to the hull.

"The superstructure is a hollow shell moulded over a former. It con- sists of three laminations, two of one thirty-second-inch balsa wood and one of one thirty-second-inch plywood.

Probably the most intricate part of the whole model is the instrument panel.

Mounted on it are forty-two separate pieces varying in size from one-six- teenth inch up to three-sixteenth inch.

On seeing this control panel, and bearing in mind that each of the thirty-two stanchions round the deck is made up of five separate pieces, it is easy to see why the model has taken so long to build. In every detail it is a true copy of the full-size boat and has, in fact, been altered slightly several times during construction to conform to the latest life-boat practice.

Now that the model is complete, it has been passed by the Surveyor's Office of the Royal National Life-boat Insti- tution as a true representative model of this class of motor life-boat." On the 26th of July the Guild again went to Selsey. This time it was more fortunate, and its members were able to have trips in the life-boat.

Another Model Being Built Meanwhile Mr. Gordon had decided to build another life-boat model. This is to be of the 46-feet 9-inches Watson cabin type, and the actual boat chosen is another Civil Service life-boat, the North Foreland (Civil Service No. 11) stationed at Margate in 1951. It isto be twice the size of the St. Cybi, one inch to the foot, and is to show the interior.

Besides this most generous interest of the Guild in the Life-boat Service, the Royal Aircraft Establishment has helped, and is helping, the Institution in other ways. Some time ago it gave valuable help with tests of winch cables and this year it has subscribed a record sum of £148 to the Civil Service Life-boat Fund..