THOSE OF OUR MEMBERS who are lucky enough to be boat owners will no doubt be enjoying the start of the season with, this year, its unusually warm and sunny spring weekends. We wish you good sailing.

Now that the membership office has moved to Poole we seem to have a closer liaison with many of our seagoing members and we are looking forward to seeing more and more of them. If you come to Poole on holiday this summer, or if ever you moor up at Poole Quay on passage, we hope you will come to see us.

Shoreline membership, now over 31,000, has grown to be a substantial and committed part of the RNLI and it makes a considerable contribution towards the Institution's day-to-day running costs. Shoreline members, moreover, give us tremendous support. We have much appreciated over the past few years the enthusiastic letters which we have received, the additional donations which have come with subscriptions, the offers of help and requests to be put in touch with branches or guilds.

All of which leads us to believe that some more tangible bond with the lifeboat service would be welcomed; that Shoreline members would like to come closer to crew members.

Well, what about a lifeboat ? What about it, Members? a lifeboat to be named Shoreline whose storycould be followed on these pages from the day of her keel being laid down in the boatyard, through building, trials and delivery to station, to the day of her naming ceremony, to which members would be invited. Then would begin the record of her service . . .

Bearing in mind the generous, willing support we already receive, we shouldnot wish to ask our members for further monetary aid for this project—although, naturally, donations would be most welcome. With our membership now standing at over 31,000, if each and every member enrolled one new member, the resulting increase in subscriptions would be enough to pay for a Shoreline lifeboat. It is as simple as that.

The RNLI has been forced to introduce a temporary pause in its boat building programme because of escalating costs in this time of inflation.

Shoreline could put a boat on the stocks.

With the enclosed form and selfexplanatory letter, therefore, we are asking our members to make a concerted effort to help the RNLI by providing a new, modern lifeboat for the coast; and by forging a direct link between lifeboat crews and Shoreline members.

A few people may not be in a position to recruit a new member; some, on the other hand, may be able to recruit many more than one. There is no limit to the number and we will gladly provide extra forms and any help needed. We will back you up as much as we can, but the success of this effort rests firmly with you.

Let us all look forward to the day when our boat, RNLB Shoreline, makes her first rescue and saves somebody from the sea.—G. R. 'BOB' WALTON, membership secretary, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1HZ (Tel.

Poole 71133).Length overall Beam Draft Displacement Crew 37' 6" Engines .. .. Twin 52 h.p.

11'6" Mermaid diesels 3' I" Maximum speed . . over 8 knots 13 tons Range at maximum speed 150 7 nautical miles Launched down slipway or from beach or carriage, or lies at mooringsTo: SHORELINE, RNLI, WEST QUAY ROAD, POOLE, DORSET, BH15 1HZ.

I should like to be a part of such a worthwhile voluntary cause by becoming a SHORELINE member of the lifeboat service and joining the Institution as : A Life Member and Life Governor: minimum donation £60, including journal A Member and Governor: minimum annual subscription £10, including journal An Offshore Member: minimum annual subscription £3, including journal SHORELINE LIFEBOAT Total subscription NAME 1 St 1 , ADDRESS wreli mdo* Di Si& Below are the various items you are entitled to wear or fly as a member of SHORELINE: Members' tie (Terylene) £1.50 Lady's brooch £0.50 Metal car badge £1.55 Pair of cuff-links £1.75 8 "hoist flag £1.25 12" hoist flag £2.00 Dinghy burgee £1.25 Insignia payment ne Giro number is 294 7P Oj cheque leash for.