Flag days have been beating all records in this 'Year of the Lifeboat'.

Here are just a few results: On London lifeboat day, March 19, £69,355 was collected, nearly £9,000 more than in 1973. For the flag day of the little inland town of Ruthin in North Wales, one man, Reg Jones, collected no less than £104.87, and his daughter Susan yet another £18. Despite the fact that their flag day was on the same Saturday as the F.A. cup final, Shoreham beat their target figure of £700 by some £38.

Emsworth, on July 13, achieved the fine result of £200.38. Tynemouth, with a flag week in March, passed last year's total by £300, collecting £977.

Flowers have played their part, too, in this anniversary year. The flower cluband ladies' guild in Scarborough combined to present a three-day festival of flowers in St Mary's Church; the 53 arrangements were all linked to historical aspects of the lifeboat service, and a total profit of £700 was achieved.

Well over 1,000 people visited the three-day festival of flowers held during July at Hyde Chapel, Gee Cross, Hyde, which ended with a service of thanksgiving on the Sunday evening; with this special effort Hyde branch raised £450.

Top marks for a new idea from the senior class of Harris County Primary School, Fulwood, Lancashire; they organised a sponsored spell, raising £20.20 for the Fulwood and Broughton branch—and no doubt doing their spelling a power of good! From the Goodwins Sands and Downs branch comes news of a considerable feat achieved by the ladies' sewing guild, known as the Wednesday Club of Deal; £500 towards the cost of a bulldozer for Walmer lifeboat station was raised by a knitting contest.

J. S. Andrews and his family, of Tarbert, Argyll, wanted to do something special for 'The Year of the Lifeboat'.

So, while cruising off the west of Scotland in their 9-metre catamaran Aku-Aku in July, rather than justmaking a round donation, they put small amounts in the lifeboat box on board whenever they sighted things of interest or had out-of-the-ordinary experiences. Multihulls sighted, odd birds and sea creatures rated 5p; foreign or unusual yachts twice that; gales atanchor and square-rigged ships were more again; a gale under way or a lifeboat rated very high, and a small coin was put in for every lighthouse passed.

Finally, £2 for a safe and happy return home—and £1 fine for failing to be back in Tarbet for lifeboat day! It all added up to £12.20.

East Grinstead branch held their first ball, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the RNLI, at Worth Abbey in May. It was an evening much enjoyed and, with the help of local traders who gave 400 valuable prizes for the tombola, a grand profit was made of £1,216.82.

The RNLI is greatly indebted to a large number of people who make great individual efforts: people like Mrs M. Merry, of Wolverhampton, who has made 1,500 knitted rabbits, which sell for about £1 each; and Ellis Jones who, selling RNLI souvenirs in his small, but busy, fish and chip shop in Criccieth, made over £550 in 1973 and had passed £400 by July this year; or 76-year-old Mrs Catherine Edwardson, a member of Tynemouth ladies' guild, whose coffee mornings have raised more than £1,000—this year, with the regular sale of home-made toffee and shortbread and a coffee morning in July, she has raised £200; and Mrs D. Davison, of Worthing ladies' guild, who set herself an 150th anniversary target of £300, and reached it within six months.

Pewsey Zixex Club, Wiltshire, are great supporters of the local RNLI branch, and in four recent sponsored rows have raised nearly £500 for lifeboat funds. In April they set out to break the existing record of 47 hours for the 112 miles from Pewsey to Westminster. This marathon, which not only meant rowing, but also 26 portages and the navigation of 40 locks, was completed in 34| hours non-stop (except for meal breaks) and a grand total of £200 was raised.

Another marathon row, round the London waterways, was undertaken in a whaler by four crews from Red Watch, Paddington Fire Station. Setting off at midnight on Friday, May 24, the whaler arrived alongside the RNLI stand at the Boat Afloat Show in Little Venice at 1630 on Saturday, May 25, bang on time after some 48 miles, 23 locks and two tunnels. When the outboard engine of the escort boat, obligatory for the navigation of the two tunnels on the final stage, broke down, the ILB on show at Little Venice was despatched for escort duty. The row was in aid of both the RNLI and the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the RNLI received a cheque for £1,500; the money came solely from the sale of lOp programmes and donations received.

Two more sponsored rows, about which more details will be given in our next issue, have been undertaken by lifeboatmen: one by the crew and launchers at Walton and Frinton, and the other, round the Isle of Wight, by members of Lymington ILB station.Undeterred by 'typical lifeboat weather', 100 people completed a 10- mile sponsored walk arranged by Sutton Coldfield ladies" guild and raised £688; two dogs were among those sponsored and they certainly helped to keep the pace up. Another sponsored walk was planned by Anne Sutherland, daughter of the honorary secretary of Herne Bay branch; she and 11 of her young friends walked 10 miles as their own special effort for the year, and thereby added no less than £70 to the branch account.

Hair-growing can be sponsored, too.

Eion MacGregor, landlord of the Green Man, Great Braxted, Essex, grew his hair for six months for the RNLI; there was a grand ceremony in the saloon bar when his locks were lopped off, and £260 was credited to Witham and District branch. After a sponsored beard-grow by six 'regulars' of the Inn Place, Bickington, North Devon, the landlord, Barry Grover, presented a tankard containing £311 to Captain Lowry, chairman of the Appledore branch, for Appledore lifeboat.

Mike Pilkington, a committee member of Frodsham branch, Cheshire, took part in the novelty section of the Blackpool- Isle of Man race. He entered a three-piece suite, complete with television set, mounted on two pontoon floats. Winning first prize, he donated £100 to his branch funds.

Pupils of Southlands Comprehensive School, New Romney, Kent, supported by members of staff, hold a fete each year in aid of different charities. The RNLI was chosen for this 'Year of the Lifeboat' and £237.27 was donated to the local branch.the local branch.

Good Friends Barclays Bank International and the RNLI, both relative newcomers to Poole, are now near neighbours. In June Barclays International made a most generous donation of £1,000 to the Mayor of Poole's lifeboat fund, launched to provide money towards Poole's new 44' Waveney lifeboat.

From an old friend, Schermuly and Pains-Wessex, has come a welcome cheque for £1,200, raised over two seasons by a royalty scheme whereby a percentage of the profit on every set of yacht distress flare packs sold by the company was donated to the RNLI.

Bacofoil Promotion Aluminium Foils Ltd are staging a new promotion with the aim of providing an ILB. Over a period in early autumn, for every Bacofoil pack end sent in by the public a donation of 5p will be made to the RNLI. All those who send the pack ends in will receive an attractive wall chart with pictures of famous British ships..