THE R.N.L.I. has had a long association with firms at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in the construction of life-boats. The earliest life-boats were built by S. E. Saunders and later Messrs. J. Samuel White. Today life-boat construction is undertaken by Messrs. Groves and Guttridge of East Cowes. The Institution have appointed surveyors and overseers at Cowes since 1914 to ensure that building specifications and standards are met for new construction life-boats and for surveys. Permanent offices were built in the early 1930s to house the staff and to provide storage for patterns, equipment, drawings and records.

With the introduction of the inflatable inshore rescue boat in 1963, it became necessary to provide a repair and development facility to cope with the special- ised work in repairs and modifications to these craft. Adjacent to the offices for the overseeing of conventional life-boats were the Trinity House Pilot Service offices, which, on being vacated, were acquired by the Institution. It is in these buildings, suitably modernised and extended, that the major work on inshore rescue boats is carried out today.

RAPID EXPANSION The adoption of this type of craft and the very rapid expansion of new stations using it called for a repair and servicing organisation with a rapid turn-round and the capability of providing a serviceable replacement item atshort notice. This challenge was met by the late Mr. P. Rakestrow who was appointed as the Overseer (Cowes) when the repair facility was started in 1967.

Largely due to his zeal, planning and drive the Inshore Rescue Boat Centre is the success it is today, but his retirement through ill health prevented the incorporation of all his plans and he died soon afterwards.

Staff Coxswain S. T. Hills, B.E.M., who was assisting the administration and organisation of the Centre, continued in charge until his retirement in October, 1969. On 1st January, 1970, the post of Superintendent (Cowes) was created, combining the duties of the Overseer (Machinery) for conventional life-boats and the Overseer (Cowes) for the Inshore Rescue Boat Centre. Lieutenant- Commander H. E. Over was appointed to this post having joined the Institution three months earlier.

MAJOR REPAIRS The present function of the Inshore Rescue Boat Centre is to maintain the inshore rescue boats and outboard motors, undertaking the major repairs, while the Depot at Boreham Wood has a capability to deal with some of the more numerous minor repairs. The year's programme covers the survey of the summer station craft during the winter months and the reserve and winter station craft during the summer operating period. Development work is per- force mainly concentrated into the summer months.

The major repairs are carried out at Cowes by four women workers who are particularly skilled in tailoring and gluing the heavy skin fabric. Repairs can include the replacement of worn or damaged bottoms, resecuring the transomor the more recent modification for the fitting of butyl inner tubes into the existing inflatable skin.

This latest modification has been introduced to overcome the increasing porosity of the skin fabric which becomes accentuated by age and the severe conditions in which the craft operate. It also provides for the removal of the hog of the sponsons and the drooping of the bow due to the stretch of the fabric. Some craft have been successfully modified from originally having 1 inches hog and 1 inches of bow droop, all of which seriously affected the craft's speed and planing capability.

ENGINE SECTION This operation, which is aptly called 'major surgery', involves the opening up of the radial seams of the sponsons and adjusting the seams to remove the distortion before re-gluing. At the same time the original conical baffles are modified to provide an improved seating for the inner tubes. The tubes are inserted by way of a waterproof zip-fastener similar to those used for submarine escape and immersion suits. The valves are let through the existing hole in the skin. Should there be any failure of the tube the modified case will still retain the air pressure and tests have proved that only a 20-inch drop of water pressure is experienced in one hour.

Repairs to the floors and woodwork of the boats are carried out by two boat- builders. They also set up and rig the boats before embarking on trials to assess and adjust the planing aspect and speed trials. A measured half-mile stretch of the Medina River is used for speed trials.

The engine section of the Inshore Rescue Boat Centre has a major role which involves a considerable throughput of four types of outboard engines. One mechanic copes with the task of servicing about 150 engines per year, each of which comes through Cowes twice on average. The major holding of outboard engines are 'traded-in' to the manufacturer's agent every year. This creates arequirement to prepare for service of a large number of engines during the earlier months of the year, including incorporating R.N.L.I. special fittings and the initial running-in. The test tank at Cowes base is in continuous use during this period with a throughput of some 15 engines a week.

Apart from this particularly busy period, servicing and damage repairs continue throughout the year, not only for inshore rescue boat engines but for the 18 foot and 17 foot fast rescue boats as well. At the end of each operating year the engines are returned from their stations and are prepared for trading-in, involving the removal of R.N.L.I. fittings- and a short test run to prove the engine serviceable.

DEVELOPMENT WORK Development work at Cowes can vary enormously including the experi- menting with improved stowages, various floor designs, engine control arrange- ments and aerial fittings. Work has also been undertaken on the fitting out of Atlantic College prototypes for R.N.L.I. evaluation. In the spring of this year four Atlantic College hard bottoms will be fitted with buoyancy tubes, engines and steering gear for further evaluation around the coast.

The transport of inshore rescue boats is also undertaken from Cowes. A custom-built Tollbridge trailer can carry four boats with four engines in the Land-Rover which provides the towing unit. This provides a very mobile unit which can negotiate the most difficult of inclines and beach conditions to deliver the boats to the boathouses.Michael Hennessy News reaches the Journal that the bowman of the Youghal, Co. Cork, life-boat, Mr. Michael Hennessy, some months ago 'dived off the quay, seaboots and all, and saved a child who had fallen in and was about to drown'..