THE RNLI ACCOUNTS for 1984 have yet to be completed, but they are likely to show that during the year at least £21 million has been raised. This figure reflects not only the tremendous efforts of the branches and guilds but also the high esteem in which the Institution is held, as several major gifts were received during the year. Among these were a legacy for over £1 million, a donation of £500,000 and the results of special appeals by Safeway Food Stores and the Newspaper Society.

These gifts have helped to maintain the expensive lifeboat building programme and will give a boost for the future. At present there are 11 Tyne and five Arun class lifeboats on order, at a total cost of nearly £7 million.

The requirement for 1985 is to match the record income achieved in 1984, with expenditure for this year planned to exceed £21 million. This will cover the RNLI's considerable costs which include building new lifeboats, maintaining the existing fleet, developing new designs, buying equipment and training lifeboat crews. 1984 looks like showing a record number of lives saved, and the planned expenditure on new boats in 1985 must therefore be money well spent.

Local newspaper lifeboat appeal As part of this year's Local Newspaper Week celebrations, over 150 newsboys and girls converged on London from all parts of the country on September 29 to deliver copies of their local and regional newspapers. Seven swapped their bikes for boats, as they delivered their papers in a brand new lifeboat and an ocean racing trimaran.

The occasion was the naming ceremony of the lifeboat Newsbuoy, bought as a result of the Local Newspaper Week lifeboat appeal. Hundreds of local papers, newsagents and newsboys and girls joined in the fund raising and, by the end of the week, had raised a large part of the cost of the new 52ft Arun class lifeboat. A report on the naming of Newsbuoy appears on page 118.

AGM 1985. Governors please note The RNLI's annual meetings for 1985 will take place on Tuesday May 21 at the South Bank, London. The governor's annual general meeting will be held in the Queen Elizabeth Hall at 11.30 am and the annual presentation of awards to lifeboatmen and honorary workers will take place at the new time of 2.30 pm in the Royal Festival Hall.

All governors of the RNLI should find an application form enclosed in this issue for both the morning and afternoon meetings. If, by any chance, there is no application form enclosed and you are a governor wishing to attend either meeting, please write to the Director, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1HZ, giving your requirements.

To save postage, there is no need to return the form if you do not wish to attend either meeting, or to receive a copy of the annual report and accounts.

Branches and guilds will receive details about how to apply for tickets for the afternoon presentation of awards from their regional offices in the usual way. Other supporters of the RNLI who wish to attend the presentation should write to the Director at RNLI Headquarters, Poole.

Storm Force A new RNLI junior membership scheme, Storm Force, was launched in January. The aim of the scheme is to interest children in the work of the RNLI. The annual subscription is £3 and Storm Force is open to everybody under 16. Members receive a Storm Force pack with stickers, a badge, poster and a special certificate printed by computer. They will also receive three newsletters a year.

Details of Storm Force are given on page 134.

Silk Cut nautical awards The recognition and encouragement of excellence is perhaps the best way of summing up the aims of the Silk Cut nautical awards 1983/84, announced at a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel on November 20 and presented by the Minister of Sport, Mr. Neil Macfarlane, MP. The awards were made for seamanship, rescue, design, club service and yacht racing and the winners were selected from a very broad field by a distinguished panel of judges, chaired by Chay Blyth and including Lt Alan Tate, RNLI staff officer operations (2).

The final winners in each section were chosen with great difficulty from short lists of strong contenders. In two sections short listed nominations included two RNLI lifeboats. Among the six nominations for rescue were Selsey D class lifeboat, for the service to the motor cruiser Joan Maureen off SelseyBill on October 5, 1983, and Filey lifeboat for the service to the coaster Rito off Filey Brigg on December 20, 1983. The final winner in this section was the crew of D-Flight 22 Squadron, RAF Leconfield, for the helicopter rescue of the crew of a trawler off the Scarborough coast last January; there was also a special award for Anthony Taylor who, while walking on Mablethorpe Beach in that same January, saw a teenage boy in trouble, his boat capsized, and went into the very rough, icy seas to bring him ashore.

Among the three nominations for seamanship were St Helier lifeboat, for the service to the yacht Cythara among rocks in St Clements Bay, Jersey, on September 3, 1983, and Selsey lifeboat for the service to the yacht Enchantress of Hamble, once again off Selsey Bill, on September 9, 1983. The final winner was St Helier lifeboat and awards were presented to each member of the crew: Coxswain Michael Berry, Crew Member David Aubert, acting second coxswain, Emergency Mechanic Patrick Attenborough, acting motor mechanic, Emergency Mechanic David Mills and Crew Members William Hibbs and John Gray.

The St Helier service to Cythara and the Selsey service to Enchantress of Hamble are described by Coxswain Michael Berry and Coxswain Michael Grant, respectively, in the discussion on page 119.

Man of the year and unsung hero Arthur Hill, the Largs lifeboatman (pictured on the cover of the summer 1984 journal) who rescued a girl by diving under the hull of an upturned motor cruiser in July 1983 was voted a Man of the Year and attended the annual luncheon at the Savoy Hotel, London in November.

Michael Leneghan, coxswain of Newcastle lifeboat, Co Down—coincidentally, his lifeboat was featured on the autumn 1984 cover—has been presented by Princess Alexandra with one of the six awards accorded by the Celebrities Guild of Great Britain for Unsung Heroes. He has been a lifeboatman for 38 years, becoming coxswain in 1961. He has been involved in 120 services, saving 73 lives during that time.

On Station The following lifeboats have taken up station or relief fleet duties: Stromness, Orkney: 52ft Arun class lifeboat ON 1099 (52-29), The Joseph Rothwell Sykes and Hilda M., October 15, 1984.

Relief: 52ft Arun class lifeboat ON 1103 (52-31), Newsbuoy, October 23, 1984.

Station closed Stonehaven lifeboat station, Kincardineshire, has closed following the withdrawal of its 15ft 6in D class lifeboat at the end of the 1984 summer season on October 31. Little operational activity by the lifeboat in recent years is the reason for the closure. The station was taken over by the RNLI in 1867, closed in 1934 and re-opened in 1967 with an inflatable lifeboat. Since 1867 lifeboats from Stonehaven have launched 95 times, saving 70 lives.

Blue Peter Lifesaver Appeal BBC television's Blue Peter launched a dual appeal in November. One aim was to replace the four Blue Peter lifeboats (Atlantic 21s at Littlehampton and Beaumaris, 15ft 6in D class lifeboats at North Berwick and St Agnes), the other to provide irrigation equipment and seeds for the famine stricken areas of Ethiopia. Viewers wishing to help the lifeboat appeal were asked to send in old postcards and interesting buttons with a target of 800,000 envelopes full of either commodity. These have been transported free of charge by Roadline from the main collection depot in Banbury to Poole head office where detailed sorting has taken place.

The response has been remarkable with an average of more than 5,000 envelopes arriving every day in the first three weeks of the appeal.

Liverpool Cathedral service Rear Admiral W. J. Graham, director of the RNLI, attended a service in Liverpool's Church of England Cathedral on October 7 to mark the 160th anniversary of the Institution and read the lesson. The service was one of several held throughout the country in connection with the anniversary.

D class development Following extensive trials at RNLI Cowes base and on the coast, a new version of the D class inflatable lifeboat is to go into production. Ten of these lifeboats have been ordered from Avon Inflatables Ltd and after they have been fitted out at Cowes will, in the course of this year, be sent to replace some of the older D class lifeboats at stations round the coast. Powered by a 40hp outboard engine, to reach a maximum speed of 22 knots, the 16ft 3in Avon D class lifeboat is nine inches longer and two inches wider than her predecessors. Her twoply Terylene bottom has been given a deeper vee keel forward, a longer forefoot and a flat bottom at the transom, with no gull's wing effect. This means there is less slamming in rough weather and better directional manoeuvrability, ahead and astern; propeller cavitation is reduced and the overall result is a much softer ride.

Other refinements that the RNLI has developed over the past 20 years have also been incorporated into the newdesign to improve performance and reliability. These include a one-piece hinged plywood floor and separate bow board, trouser drains for rapid draining, special radio stowage in the bow which is sponge lined to absorb shocks, an anchor and anchor warp stowage box and an inflatable double skinned keel.

Lifeboat sold to Uruguay The RNLI has close and friendly ties with the lifeboat service in Uruguay, the Associacion Honoraria De Salvamentos Maritimos Y Fluviales (ADES) which operates the former RNLI lifeboat Greater London at Buceo near Montevideo.

ADES recently asked to buy another lifeboat from the Institution's sale list and it has been offered the 42ft Watson class and former Arbroath lifeboat, The Duke of Montrose. ADES, a voluntary society, has already started a national fund raising appeal to meet the cost of the lifeboat.

Lifeboat commemorative stamp The Post Office have announced that a series of four stamps entitled Safety at Sea will be issued on June 18, 1985. The four designs will depict a lifeboat, a lighthouse, a satellite and a buoy. The stamps are being issued to mark theconference of the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities taking place in Brighton this year and also to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the patenting of Lionel Lukin's 'unimmergible' converted fishing boat, the beginning of lifeboat design. More details about this set of stamps will be made available by the Post Office, nearer the date of issue.

Anniversary vellums Berwick-upon-Tweed lifeboat station in Northumberland and The Mumbles in West Glamorgan have been awarded vellums by the Committee of Management to mark the 150th anniversary of their establishment in 1835.

Having a ball It is not often that the chain of events following a lifeboat service directly helps a highly successful fund raising evening, but that is what happened after Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, lifeboat went to the aid of the yacht Maiana, owned by Miss Caroline Le Bas from London.

After the rescue Miss Le Bas became an enthusiastic supporter of the station and when a gala evening was organised by the lifeboat crew to celebrate the station's diamond jubilee at the Savoy Country Club on October 27, Miss Le Bas had laid the foundations by obtaining many of the gifts for auction and prizes. The auction, run by Ron Miller of London Weekend Television, included a new VW Polo coupe car, and two return airline tickets to Australia.

The last item to be auctioned was a crystal decanter engraved with an inscription commemorating the station's diamond jubilee: it fetched £270. Matt Monro provided the cabaret, free of charge, travelling to the Island especially for the evening. Four hundred and fifty people enjoyed an excellent dinner and dancing to the Royal Marines dance band, The Blues. One guest, on seeing the band packing up, rushed over and said 'You haven't played Sailor yet. If you do, my husband will write a cheque for £500'—the band willingly played the tune and Yarmouth branch received the cheque. At the end of a highly enjoyable and memorable evening, a phenomenal £13,000 had been raised.

All inclusive Torbay's 18ft 6in McLachlan class lifeboat was called,put at the end of last October to a 15-year-old boy, adrift and helpless on his sailboard after its fin had broken, one mile east of Paignton, off Gas Works Beach. Once safely aboard the lifeboat, the boy explained he was staying at Torbay with his parents who had won a weekend for two at the Imperial Hotel . . . in an RNLI raffle.

'It's all part of the package deal, then, Coxswain Arthur Curnow replied, as quick as a flash. Not according to the boy's mother, though, who, together with a letter of thanks to the coxswain, enclosed a generous donation to the RNLI..