EVERY YEAR at the London International Boat Show, the RNLI is given a flying start by the organisers of the exhibition, National Boat Shows Ltd, when they donate the space for the RNLI stand free of charge. This year's stand area would normally have cost an exhibitor £8,000 and it allowed the Institution in its 160th anniversary year to bring to Earls Court a 47ft Tyne class fast slipway lifeboat, the largest lifeboat seen there since a 52ft Barnett was exhibited in 1961 and certainly the most expensive at a cost of £430,000. A further generous gesture was made by Fairey Allday Marine, the boat's builder, who paid transportation costs.

The public showed great interest in the lifeboat with queues forming below the stairway leading up to her deck.

There, members of Selsey lifeboat crew, whose station has the first Tyne lifeboat, took their turn patiently to explain the lifeboat's features and to answer questions. The attraction of the lifeboat paid dividends for the fund raisers. Confronting the public as they descended from the lifeboat was an irresistible array of souvenirs and gifts and, thanks to the very hard work of branches from London and surrounding areas, record takings of £11,680 were achieved through souvenir and lottery sales. A further £2,954 was collected in boxes on the RNLI and other stands with well over £1,000 coming from the efforts of Chelsea Pensioner Bert Spurdin, who sat and collected money on every day of the show. Shoreline had another record recruitment drive with 1,179 new members.

There was never a dull moment and RNLI events seemed often to dominate press and public attention at Earls Court. The BBC launched their Humber lifeboat television series aboard the Tyne lifeboat, with Superintendent Coxswain Brian Bevan being photographed by an army of pressmen. Then, a few days later, Matt Lethbridge, coxswain of the Isles of Scilly lifeboat, arrived to be awarded a vellum for rescuing the survivors of the BA helicopter crash, only to be ambushed by Eamonn Andrews with that well-known greeting 'This is Your Life'! Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, lifeboat crew paid a welcome visit to help launch a new film about their station, 'How Do You Say Thank You?' and, as usual, lifeboatmen from all over the country came to see friends and colleagues at the show.

The organisers of the exhibition were also kind enough to allow the RNLI to use the jetty on the central pool for presentations. The Ancient Order of Foresters handed over a cheque for £60,000 to Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Compston, a deputy chairman of the Institution. The money was presented to commemorate the Foresters' 150th anniversary year, which falls in 1984; it will go towards the cost of the 33ft Brede class lifeboat to be named Foresters Future which has been sent to Alderney for the evaluation of a new Channel Islands station.

Raymond Baxter, a member of the Committee of Management, received a cheque for nearly £8,000 resulting from the National Soap Box Marathon held at Blakesley, Northamptonshire. The cheque was handed over by Tony Hackett, chairman of the Marathon committee, Peter Mimms of Frizzells and Tony Richardson of the Civil Service Motoring Association; they had all been involved in this highly successful fundraising event.

Students from the City and Guild's College Union of Imperial College, London, presented a cheque for £4,000 to Lord Gough, a member of the Fund Raising Committee, after they had taken a special Burroughs Windcheetah pedal car non-stop in relay round the entire coast of England, Scotland and Wales in ten days.

Admiral Compston was also presented with a cheque for £20,000 on the RNLI stand by Richard Armitage, managing director of Bryant and May, after a competition had been run on the back of certain brands of their matches.

As always, the Midland Bank was kind enough to entertain many of the RNLI's guests on its stand, offering them a fine view of the events on the pool.—E.W-W..