WE ARE DELIGHTED to be able to publish below a photograph of the lifeboatmen of Blyth, the port at which the 37ft 6in Rother lifeboat RNLB Shoreline is stationed; and on page 81 is reported a fine service in which both Shoreline and Blyth's D class inflatable lifeboat took part.

* * * Earlier this year we received a letter from Shoreline member Simon Macdonald, the master of the Isle of Eigg passenger/cargo ship Eilean Ban Mora which on occasion is asked to give help to other vessels by the local Coastguard.

One such request, last spring, was to search for a small, singlehanded fishing boat overdue on passage from Arisaig to Isle of Eigg in a strong and freshening south-easterly breeze with darkness approaching. After sighting a flare and then the flame of a lighted dieselsoaked rag, Eilean Ban Mora came up with the fishing boat, some 20 yards from the rocky shore and between two reefs, and took her safely in tow.

Simon Macdonald ends his letter: 'Back at Eigg harbour we moored his boat and the following morning repaired his engine for him. Another satisfied customer and a fiver in the lifeboat box which we carry aboard our little ship justin case! We fly the Shoreline flag with pride.' * * * One of our American Shoreline members, Philip Weld of Gloucester, Massachusetts, was the winner of the Observer 3,000-mile Singlehanded Transatlantic Race last June from an international fleet of about 150 yachts, both mono and multihull. The start was from Plymouth on Saturday June 7, and Phil Weld, in his 51ft trimaran Moxie, completed the course to Newport, Rhode Island, in a record time of 17 days, 23 hours and 6 minutes. A telegram of congratulations was sent to him on behalf of his lifeboat and Shoreline friends.

The second place overall was taken by Nick Keig, who was elected president of Peel station branch last April.

Sailing another trimaran, Three Legs of Mann III, Nick Keig was the first Briton to finish.

* * * It has been our pleasure to welcome and enrol a number schools into Shoreline membership over the years, and we have found that all these schools not only support us with their annual subscriptions but also by all sorts of schemes and plans thought out by themselves to raise extra funds for the lifeboats.

Take just one example. The children of Moorside Junior School, Swinton, under the enthusiastic and dedicated guidance of Mr J. D. Lewis, have thought out almost too many schemes to mention here: pooling foreign coins and used stamps; making soft toys; dropping their self-denial week pennies into Lenten jars; and their own ingenious idea for trying to 'sink the lifeboat' (a bit of a twist here, we feel, but the end result is in our favour!). A cardboard lifeboat, given a waterproof coating and lined with polystyrene for buoyancy, is floated in a tank of water and coins are dropped into it. The owner of the final coin that sinks the boat is given the honour of counting the proceeds. The children are loyally backed up by their parents and friends—indeed the school parents' association gave a donation of its own—so that, at the end of the Lent term, the staggering sum of £108 reached us from this school.

Thank you children, one and all, for everything you do to help us—PETER HOLNESS, membership secretary, RNLl, West Quay Road, Pool'e, Dorset, BH15 I HZ.To: The Director, RNLI, West Quay Road, 1 enclose subscription to join Shoreline as a: Member Family Membership Member and Governor Life member and Governor Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ.

£3.00 (minimum) n £5.00 (minimum) Q £15.00 (minimum) D £150.00 (minimum) D Send me details of how 1 can help with a Legacy.

Name _ Address Over 105,000 people would have been lost without the lifeboat service..