Figures already available show that 1965 was a year of outstanding achievement for the life-boat service. In 1964 an all-time record for launches by rescue craft of the RNLI was established. In that year life-boats were launched 929 times and inshore rescue boats 238 times. This total figure of 1,167 launches had already been passed in 1965 by the end of September. The summer of 1965 was a particularly busy one. From May to August, inclusive, life-boats were launched on service 453 times and inshore rescue boats 333 times. Lifeboats saved 287 people and inshore rescue boats 151 people. In no other summer in the past were so many calls made on the Institution's rescue craft.

WINTER IRB STATIONS The value of the Institution's inshore rescue boats has been proved conclusively in the summer months, and it has been decided to keep twenty IRB's in service during the winter of 1965-66. The stations which have been chosen are those which afford reasonable launching conditions in relatively severe weather. Twelve of the stations which are remaining operational are in England, five in Wales and three in Scotland.

The English stations are: Blyth, Eastney, Gorleston, Lymington, Mudeford, North Sunderland, Poole, Redcar, Skegness, Tynemouth, Wells (Norfolk), and Yarmouth (Isle of Wight).

The Welsh stations are: Aberdovey, Aberystwyth, Atlantic College (Glamorgan), Llandudno, and Pwllheli.

The Scottish stations are: Droughty Ferry, Helensburgh, and Kinghorn.

CONTRACT FOR LOWESTOFT FIRM The contract for building the first six of the Institution's 44-foot steel lifeboats has been won by a Lowestoft firm of boatbuilders, Messrs. Brooke Marine Ltd. The total cost of the new boats will be £158,700. The earliest date at which the first boat can be completed will be thirty-six weeks after the placing of the orders. Completion of the others is expected to follow at fourweekly intervals. The new life-boats are built to the basic design of the 44-foot steel life-boat which the Institution obtained from the United States Coast Guard. A full description of this boat appeared in the June 1964 number of The Life-boat.

SCOTTISH STATION CLOSED The life-boat station at Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, was closed on 3oth September. The life-boat had not been called out on service for nearly four years, and it is more than eight years since a life-saving service was carried out by the Newburgh boat. The life-boat was a small 32-foot surf boat.

A life-boat station was established at Newburgh as early as 1828. Earlier records are incomplete, but the station appears to have been closed down for a number of years. It was re-opened by the Institution in 1877, and since that date Newburgh life-boats have had a fine record and saved no fewer than 155 lives, but with changed conditions there is no evident need for a life-boat today.

RESCUE BY HOVERCRAFT On 5th August, a young girl was rescued by the hovercraft operating between Ryde and Gosport. This appears to have been the first rescue carried out at sea by a hovercraft off the coast of this country. There is a certain division of opinion over the question whether a hovercraft should be regarded as a ship or an aircraft. The view taken by the Institution is that the hovercraft is essentially a marine craft, and future rescues by hovercraft can be regarded as coming within the same category as rescues by shore boats.

On I7th September, 1962, the Rhyl life-boat carried out a remarkable rescue from a hovercraft which had broken adrift from her moorings, a service for which the Coxswain, Harold Campini, was awarded the silver medal..