The Dublin lifeboat spring sale of work was held in the Royal Dublin Society on Friday March 9. With over 300 voluntary workers involved it is the single largest fund-raising event in Ireland for the lifeboat service. Mrs P.

Kavanagh, who organises the sale, saw yet another record return with £14,430.58 being raised. The most successful stall this year was Mrs Laidlaw's 'treasure 'n trash' which raised £2,295.14. The Dublin Boat Show followed a fortnight later, from Thursday March 22 to Sunday March 25, and the lifeboat stand was certainly one of the most popular at the show with many old friends calling in. A raffle for a working steamship raised £233; the floor collections realised £1,201.74, with Philip Booth who collected each day raising £674.40, while Shoreline brought in £974.65 enrolling new members and selling insignia.

Three members of Penlee lifeboat station, Clive Bennetts, the chairman, Second Coxswain Edwin Madron and Motor Mechanic Mike Inskip, were guests at a Cornish evening organised by Gloucester branch. A local village hall was packed by 150 people, many of them Cornish, to enjoy the best that Cornwall produces, including pasties, saffron buns and clotted cream, and hear of rescues off the sometimes savage Cornish coast recalled by the men who were there. During this much enjoyed evening many Cornish tales were told in dialect and Cornish songs sung; £370 was raised for the RNLI.

At the AGM of Glasgow branch last April it was reported that the revenue brought in for the lifeboats over the years by the branch had now exceeded half a million pounds: £516,000. A magnificent record of sustained endeavour.

A fashion show at Roy's of Wroxham and a concert at Thursford museum enabled Broadland Rotary Club to present £1,000 to RNLI Wroxham and District branch.

Those familiar with Ben Travers' farce 'Rookery Nook' will know that a character appears at one point collecting for lifeboat week. Over the years RNLI offices have had numerous requests for a 1920s style collecting box as a prop, along with oilskins and emblems. North London district office make sure to ask for some recompense for this lending service and recently the Little Heath and Potters Bar Operatic and Dramatic Society brought back £22.80 in its borrowed collecting box.

The organisers of Beaulieu boat jumble, held on Sunday April 15, gave a large stall free to Lymington branch.

With a wide variety of goods being sold, including boats, books, charts, chandlery, outboard engines and sailing clothing, £928 was taken at the stall with a further £267 resulting from the auction of goods donated by other stallholders at the end of the day. Lymington guild sold £451 worth of RNLI souvenirs, Shoreline membership and insignia sales raised another £91 while a team selling tickets for the RNLI Southern Region's draw for a car took a record £464. Total, £2,201. A particular attraction on the stall was a 'What is it?' mystery object donated, with a £10 prize, by Major G. B. Heywood. The winner was Mr A. G. Merriman of Liss whose guess came nearest to the Major's definition: a portable stanchion for a cat purchase block for the anchor. Mr Merriman gave the £10 to the RNLI but kept the portable stanchion saying he would try to think of a use for it! Over the past two years Upminster and Cranham branch has sought the help of the Metropolitan Police and Essex Police Bands to good effect.

Reportedly the evening concerts that have been staged have been arresting occasions providing a rhythmic beat. It is obviously not just coppers that are collected because so far more than £750 has been raised by the branch in this way, and the conducter for the last concert was aptly named R. O. Coxon! The Devon and Cornwall Constabulary Police Band has also been helping the RNLI. A concert was organised in Ashburton Comprehensive School for Buckfastleigh branch with the Police Band and Police Singers performing.

The school hall was full and £230 was raised for the branch.

There are only about 600 people living on the island of Westray, Orkney, but that does not deter the local guild which in recent endeavours has raised £2,333 for the RNLI. Its activities has ranged from raffles, a regatta, a church service and a sale to a concert. Mrs J.

Brown, honorary secretary of the guild for six years, president for a further nine and a driving force behind such successes as these, was awarded a silver badge last year.

London Pride Music Hall, a group formed by members of Richmond and Barnes Amateur Operatic Society, gave three concerts for charity in the spring.

One night was for the benefit of the RNLI and by the combined efforts of this group and Kingston-upon-Thames branch, £1,248 was raised. The bathtub sailors of Guernsey have done it again; they raised a record £1,450 for St Peter Port station branch racing sail-powered bathtubs in Guernsey Yacht Club's Boxing Day marathon across St Peter Port Harbour. The wind was a fresh breeze, force 5, but the 14 entrants seemed undeterred despite the fact that four out of every five had to give up. The open class was won by Simon Lovell and Keith Enevoldsen took the purist trophy.

Southwold and Dunwich fund raising committee has held a highly successful horse racing evening which made £763.90 with 126 guests attending. It is an annual event taking place at a local hotel; six lanes are taped out on the floor and guests are selected as jockeys.

Horses are auctioned off, bets are placed and dice are thrown to indicate which horses advance and how far.

There are normally six races during the evening and tickets include the price of a meal at half-time. Details of how to organise a similar event, complying with the requirements of the law, will willingly be supplied by Mr D. Ball, 78 Pier Avenue, Southwold, Suffolk.

The Southern Black and White Minstrels, directed by Mrs Iris Price, put on a show to raise money for Eastleigh branch. A dazzling show, played to a full house, brought in £155. Souvenirs were also sold and among prizes for a raffle was a crochetted blanket made by Mrs Hilda Walters.

Leslie Boyce helps various charities and his work for Enfield Lifeboat Club represents a fair proportion of his efforts. He fills an average of ten collecting boxes in lifeboat week each year and last year made £250. In 18 years his collections have amounted to more than £2,000. One entrant in the recent five-mile fun run for rescue held at Queens Park, Bournemouth, was Russell Marston whose own personal sponsorship amounted to £100 for the RNLI.

Eleven-year-old Russell's achievement was remarkable because he uses crutches, having recently lost a leg.

In a record year of fund raising when its total reached £2,200, Shaw and Crompton guild held its annual American tea party. The event, which included the presentation of the guild's honorary secretary, Mrs Joan Loney, with her silver badge, was a great success and raised £267.

The RNLI benefits handsomely from sponsored runners in marathons throughout the country. Before last year, however, no marathon had been organised specially for the RNLI by an RNLI branch. The first Weston Super Marathon, staged by a sub-committee of Weston-super-Mare branch, involved 210 runners. The course was from Weston to Burnham-on-Sea and back and sponsorship produced a gratifying £1,300 for the lifeboat service. Plans for a second marathon next September are under way; information from Dave Wallace, 31 Old Banwell Road, Locking, Weston-super-Mare.

The Waggon and Horses public house, Surbiton, organised a sponsored walk and quiz in aid of local charities on December 11. The RNLI was one of the charities to benefit and a team of regulars, the Surbiton Sailors, carried a mock-up 'boat' dressed overall in RNLI colours. When it was all over, the team captain, Gil Carter, received on behalf of Molesey branch a cheque for £500 presented by the Mayor of Kingstonupon- Thames, Councillor Albert Simpson.

If you want to give up smoking and don't trust your will-power, it starts to be difficult to go back on your decision if you get yourself sponsored for the RNLI. Mrs Williams, who lives at Didcot, raised £101 from her colleagues at American Hospital Supply (UK) Ltd in this way.

An oil rig in the Brent Charlie field is a lucrative outpost of Beccles and District branch. Peter Wall, who works there, raised no less than £463 for the branch in 1983 which brings his impressive total collection over the last three years to well over £1,000.

Jerry Starley was prepared to lose his six-year-old beard once he had raised £200 for Torbay lifeboat. The ceremonial shaving took place at the Castle pub, Stoke Gabriel, after which the beardless fund raiser declared he intended to grow another immediately— for more hair-raising exploits? Fairlight Friends of Hastings lifeboat were formed in April 1982 and have since held three successful jumble sales.

The most recent sale made £625 and the cheque was handed over by the chairman of the group, Colin Gotts, to Hastings honorary secretary Tony Hodgson in front of the lifeboathouse.

Since they were formed the Fairlight Friends have raised £1,695.

Annual fund raising for the RNLI at Bradfield Primary School, Essex, reached a record last year. The children's sponsored events, bring-and-buy sale for parents and friends and a daily sale of pupil-made cakes in the school brought in a commendable £106.

A cheque for £400 was presented to Judge Lawrence Verney, chairman of Winslow branch, at its AGM by Monty Palfrey, former president of Buckingham University students' union. It was part of the proceeds of the students' rag week. In its first year as a branch in its own right, Winslow has raised £3,438 through subscription and donations, house-to-house collections, collecting boxes, souvenirs and special events. Allan Clarke, administrator of the enquiry desk at Reading Post Office sorting office, has been sorting out his weight problems recently, to the benefit of the RNLI. He told his sponsors he would lose a stone in a month; he did it, too, raising £112 for the lifeboats.

Stuart Mason of Troon lost four stone in a sponsored slim which took in the Christmas and New Year festive season; as a result, Troon station branch received a gift of £205.

A cheese and wine party recently staged by Ferndown branch made a very satisfactory profit of £81.27.

Seven members of Kernel Hempstead's Inland Sea Anglers recently gave a cheque for £60 to their local RNLI branch after they had taken part in a sponsored fish-in for the lifeboats.

Although no longer able to continue as a fisherman after a ship-board accident, Alan White ran for Grimsby and District branch in the Humber charity marathon last September and netted £1,311.41; it was the highest individual amount raised. Visitors to Townsend Thoresen stand at the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earls Court last spring were offered a cute orange 'fluff bug' coat ornament if they put money in the RNLI pedestal collecting box. The box had to be emptied four times during the show and a remarkable £1,127.16 was collected.

The oak panelled billiard room in the home of Mrs D. Chippindale, a member of Bradford ladies' guild and luncheon club, was transformed for a day into an Aladdin's cave of goods and Christmas decorations when Mrs Jill Slingsby and her friends staged their winter spectacular; Jill Slingsby herself made 215 items for sale. The 250 tickets for the event were sold out two weeks before the date and a grand total of £1,414 rewarded the ladies' hard work.

Rob James, the yachtsman who tragically lost his life off Salcombe last year, had been due to give a talk to Epsom Pirates Cruising Club. In his memory the club held a raffle at its annual 'noggin 'n' natter' and raised £203 for Salcombe branch. More money was raised on Salcombe's behalf when Andy McCormack, son of the manager of the Shipwrights Inn, organised a sponsored tennis match with five friends in London.

They played on the hottest day of last year from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm and raised £417.11 in the process.

A coffee morning held at the Lecture Hall in Barton-on-Humber by the local branch was where Michael Brown, member of Parliament for Brigg and Cleethorpes and president of Bartonon- Humber branch, was able to hand over a cheque for £1,000 to area organiser, Stuart Swallow. Norsystems Sea Angling Club of Dovercourt raised £342 to be shared between Harwich and Walton and Frinton lifeboat stations during a recent angling competition from Walton Pier.

The Scouts in the Roxeth area held their annual St George's Day Church Parade at St Andrew's Church, South Harrow, on Sunday April 29. As the Sea Scouts are celebrating their 75th anniversary and the theme of the service was the Cornwell Badge for courage, the collection, £81.18, was donated to the RNLI. The chairman and honorary secretary of Rayners Lane branch, Bill Warren and Geoff Cunnington, attended the service and plans were made afterwards for the RNLI branch to show the Scouts a D class inflatable lifeboat and give them a film show and talk one parade night. In support of Nottinghamshire lifeboat appeal, seven-year-old Robert Young wrote a short illustrated story about a lifeboat rescue called 'Saturday Afternoon'. There were three chapters: the call out, the rescue and the return.

Selling copies to his family and friends, Robert raised £57 for the appeal.

Following a visit to the RNLI base at Cowes, the pupils of Herbert Shiner School, Petworth, made a collection for the lifeboats and also held a sponsored silence and a disco. In all they raised £108 which they sent to Cowes with a letter of thanks for 'the privilege of a conducted tour of the depot'.

The result of coffee mornings, a midsummer fair, flag day and several other summer activities was a mammoth £17,000 amassed by Tenby and Saundersfoot ladies' guild last year. One of the ladies made mice out of shells and brought in £70 by selling them in the lifeboathouse.

Two months into its fund raising year and Yarmouth and Gorleston ladies' guild was already able to hand over a cheque for £2,000 to regional organiser George Price at its AGM last November.

Several functions and money from collecting boxes helped to make up this sum. In addition, a further cheque for £250 was presented by Phillips Petroleum to the guild at the meeting..