THE first quarter of 1963 was a period in which a number of important advances were made in the develop- ment of life-boat design and in the task, which is a continuous one, of modernizing and re-equipping the life- boat service as a whole. During this period a new type of life-boat was com- pleted. This was the 48-foot 6-inch Oakley life-boat, which is described in detail on page 452 and illustrated on pages 472 and 473.

In the summer of 1958 the first of the Oakley type of life-boat was completed.

This was the 37-foot boat, and a num- ber of these life-boats are now in service. The Oakley life-boat, as is generally known, is a self-righting boat, but the most important quality of the boat is not simply that she will right herself automatically if she capsizes but that she is a more stable boat than comparable life-boats of the non-self- righting type, her self-righting quality being provided by an ingenious system of shifting of water ballast. The same principle has been applied in the new 48-foot 6-inch boat, but this is, of course, a boat of a larger type with a cabin and shelter for the crew and survivors. At the time of going to press the new life- boat is on her way to Leith, where she will be inspected by representatives of life-boat societies from many countries who are attending the ninth interna- tional life-boat conference.

The 48-foot 6-inch life-boat is not the only type on which the Institution is working. Designs have been submitted for a life-boat which will be some 70 feet in length, will have a higher cruising speed than existing life-boats in the fleet and from which it will be possible to launch a smaller boat for inshore rescue work. When inviting designs for the new type of life-boat the Institution made it clear that steel construction might be acceptable. Extensive tank tests will have to be carried out before a prototype life-boat can be built, and some two or three years may elapse before this prototype can be effectively tested under service conditions.

NEW FAST RESCUE CRAFT Concurrently with these important developments in the design of life-boats experiments have been carried out with a new type of fast rescue craft designed primarily for inshore rescue work in the summer months. These craft are inflat- able and are constructed of a tough nylon material proofed with neoprene.

They can be driven at 20 knots or more, a 40 h.p. outboard motor being mounted on a wooden transom. The types with which the Institution has been experimenting are 15 feet 9 inches in length and have a beam of 6 feet 4 inches. Craft of this type are being placed at the life-boat stations at Aberystwyth, Gorleston, Redcar and Wells, and trials will be carried out at other points on the coast between life- boat stations. The craft will normally be manned by a crew of two with two additional helpers to assist in launching where necessary. Those who man them will receive service rewards on the same scale as members of life-boat crews. An illustration of this new type of rescue craft is to be found on page 475.

WORST WINTER IN MEMORY The winter of 1962-1963 was as severe as any in living memory, and an examination of the accounts of services in this number of the Life-boat will show continual references to sleet, snow and ice, with more than one instance of a life-boat being used to convey people or supplies when places had been cut off by blizzards. In the course of the winter one outstanding service by a life-boat led to the winning of the Institution's highest award for gal- lantry, the gold medal. The medal, which is being presented by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, at the international life-boat conference in Edinburgh, was awarded to Coxswain Hubert Petit, of St. Peter Port, Guernsey, for the rescue of nine people from the Norwegian motor vessel Johan Collett on the night of 5th/6th February. A full account of the service appears on this page. Cox- swain Petit is only the third man to receive the Institution's gold medal since the end of the second world war, and it is an interesting fact that one of the others was also a Channel Islander.

This was Coxswain Thomas King, of St. Helier, whose medal was awarded in 1949. The third gold medallist was Coxswain Richard Evans, of Moelfre.

Another service of exceptional merit in appalling conditions was carried out by the Lizard-Cadgwith life-boat on the 28th and the 29th December, 1962, when an east-north-easterly gale reach- ing force 11 was blowing, and the life-boat carried out a search for approximately 14 hours, conditions being such that during the entire search the life-boat's drogue was streamed. A framed letter of thanks was sent from the Chairman of the Institution to Coxswain George Mitchell and his crew. This service was briefly referred to in the March 1963 number of the Life-boat on page 440.

SUPPORT FROM AMERICAN7 WIVES A delightful ceremony of an unusual kind took place in Aldeburgh recently when the Mayoress of Aldeburgh, Mrs.

Dudley O. Knowles, issued membership badges of the ladies' life-boat guild to the 38 wives of the fighter pilots of the U.S.

91st Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing stationed at the R.A.F. station at Bentwaters, Suffolk. There has been no previous example of a group of American women joining a ladies' life-boat guild en masse in this fashion, and the example of the wives was soon emulated by their hus- bands, when eleven members of the Tactical Fighter Wing became active associate members of the Aldeburgh and District ladies' life-boat guild..