It is not often that a new lifeboat station is opened. This is the story of how the Channel island of Alderney came to provide what has rapidly proved an invaluable addition to the RNLI's operational cover.WHEN YOU HEAR him calmly describe the events of the very early morning of February 11, 1985 when the motor vessel Corinna ran aground in an easterly gale on the eastern corner of Alderney in very rough seas and strong currents, when he drove the lifeboat between shoals to where the stricken coaster lay with her bottom ripped open by the jagged rocks, it is difficult to believe that under two years earlier Stephen Shaw had never taken the helm of a lifeboat, let alone entertained thoughts of becoming an RNLI coxswain.

In fact, a year before that winter night, Alderney had had no lifeboat at all. But in May this year the Duchess of Kent paid a visit to the island, officially and royally to seal the committee of management's decision to make Alderney a fully-fledged lifeboat station.

Alderney has a vicious coastline, strewn with rocks and barricaded by violent tide-rips. Bolstering the island's natural defences, man has added his own fortifications to the coast. Forts, built to deter Napoleonic sabre rattling, stand sentinel on strategic promontaries and starker concrete bunkers and gun emplacements serve as a reminder of the Nazi occupation in the last war.

A fairly imposing disincentive, one might think, to yachtsmen and other seafarers to sail anywhere near the island. Not so; the quiet unspoilt charm of Alderney's interior attracts more and more visiting yachts every year and it was for this very reason that the first moves were made, back in March 1982, which led to the birth of a new lifeboat station at Alderney.

To be historically accurate, this was not a birth but a re-birth. As long ago as 1869 a lifeboat was stationed at Alderney by the RNLI but when, in 1884, the station was eventually closed, the lifeboat had not once launched on service.

In the years since then and before the re-establishment of the station, it was local boatmen, mainly fishermen who, together with Guernsey lifeboat, provided rescue cover round the Alderney coast. Indeed, part of the ceremony attended by the Duchess of Kent in May was the presentation of an inscribed vellum recording the RNLI's official thanks for the 'valuable services carried out over many years by local boats in the work of saving life at sea, prior to the establishment of the lifeboat station'.

The story of the re-birth begins when, on March 3, 1982 Mr Jon Kay Mouat, the president of the island's governing body, the States of Alderney, wrote a letter to Guernsey lifeboat station. He pointed out that local fishermen were under pressure, having to devote more and more of their valuable fishing time either to standing by for or being called out to emergencies. In 1979 they had answered 30 call-outs and by 1981 the annual total had risen to 41; whereas in 1977 there had been 2,649 visiting yachts to Alderney, in 1981 traffic had risen to the extent that no fewer than 5,813 had called into Braye Harbour.

Clearly the picture was changing, and the RNLI, which has its coastal coverage constantly under review, was aware that many more yachts, not stopping at Alderney, sailed close by and also that some 25 per cent of shipping goingthrough the Channel passed just to the north of the island. True, Guernsey lifeboat was only an hour away, but this could be an hour and a half in bad weather. The nearest French lifeboat at Goury on the Cherbourg peninsula also took over an hour to reach Alderney and, with records beginning to prove the need for a fast reaction to emergencies, the requirement for a speedy lifeboat stationed at Alderney was emerging.

Many considerations have to be made when a new lifeboat station is mooted.

What are the coastal conditions? What is the most common type of casualty? What class of lifeboat would be needed? Where could a lifeboat be kept? And who are you going to get to crew the lifeboat? The answer to the first question is that the waters around Alderney are notorious for their treachery.

Apart from its jagged coastline there are many outlying rocks and shoals ready to receive unwitting or luckless sailors. Then there are the two channels, the Alderney Race, between the island and the French coast and, to the west, the Swinge whose very name, like some Dickensian character, suggests villainy. At least a four-knot stream can be expected in the Alderney Race and a good seven knots in the Swinge. It is not an uncommon sight on Alderney to see a yacht, sails set, travelling sideways or even backwards at speed through the Swinge and when there is a strong wind against tide in either of these channels it is no place to be. Even a light wind against the current can produce dangerous short steep seas.

Only wary yachtsmen should sail close to Alderney and those unprepared for these conditions are the most likely customers for a lifeboat. Fishing boats and commercial shipping are also not immune to becoming victims of thesewaters. A careful analysis of the rescues for which local fishermen had been called out in recent years revealed, however, that a large majority were in winds of under gale force and also that frequently the casualty, more often than not a yacht, had been towed to safety.

Here were useful clues to the type of lifeboat that would best suit Alderney.

One that was powerful enough to cope with the strong tides and towing requirements, manoeuvrable enough to negotiate the rocky coastline, fast enough to react quickly to rapidly developing emergences and, finally, light enough to be able to be lifted by crane out of the harbour in extreme weather conditions. This last requirement was necessary because the only place to keep a lifeboat on Alderney was on a mooring in Braye Harbour.

The harbour is open to the north east and a gale blowing from that direction creates swell in the harbour making boarding a lifeboat difficult and putting the lifeboat at risk on her mooring.

The 33ft Brede class was the only lifeboat that met all these requirements.

Her twin 203 HP engines, capable of 20 knots had the power to cope and her 8'/2 tons were light enough for the harbour cranes. The Brede's limitation for launching in the very worst conditions was counteracted by the proximity of Guernsey's all-weather 52ft Arun class lifeboat which would provide cover when weather conditions disallowed the launch of the Brede. Statistics showed that this would not be often.

With all these questions answered, the RNLI had only to be sure of one more very important thing before it could sanction sending a lifeboat for a year's trial to Alderney: were there the men to crew her? In as much as anyone can be called an expert in the infrequent practice jaf starting up a lifeboat station from scratch, Les Vipond, the divisional inspectoj- for the south west, was the man. It Was he who was faced with the task of Selecting and training a brand new lifeboat crew at Penlee after the disaster in 1981. Longer ago, when he was on relieving duties in Scotland, he was involved in setting up Fraserburgh lifeboat station after its temporary closure following the 1970 disaster. Alderney was different however; here a lifeboat was being introduced where there had been no lifeboat before. That is not to say that there was no support for the RNLI; on the contrary, there had been active and highly productive fund-rasing on Alderney for many years under the leadership of Mrs Joyce Allen and Mis Daphne Simon and links with the lifeboat community on Guernsey were always strong. But to set up a station branch with crew, shorehelpers and committee was a different matter.

To gauge the interest of Alderney's 2,000 inhabitants and to explain the RNLI's intentions, Les Vipond organised a public meeting. It was advertised in the local newspapers and Channel TV made an announcement about it. The response to the meeting, held on October 13, 1983 at the Island Hall, was overwhelming. The hall was full and by the end there were few people attending who did not feel that they could, in some capacity, support the lifeboat station.

The RNLI's side of the bargain had been that they would provide lifeboat, boarding boat, mooring and training for the crew. Alderney would be required to provide crew, committee, space for a lifeboat and eventually, if the trial was a success, space for an assembly building for the crew. Applications for crew membership flooded in and there were many more who offered to serve on the station committee. By November, Dr John Ayoub had been appointed chairman of the branch and he, Jon Kay Mouat, President of the States, David Allen, the island's harbour master, soon to become honorary secretary of the station, and Les Vipond formed a working party in order to whittle down to 16 the list of crew applicants.

When the final selection was made, not one name on the list was that of an Alderney fisherman. Not because of their lack of support, but simply because, as their livelihood kept them at sea for so much of the time, they would seldom be available to crew the lifeboat.

Instead, the chosen volunteers numbered in their midst a landscape gardener, an air traffic controller, a dentist, two decorators, a knitwear manufacturer, an airport fireman, the island's only policeman and a telephone engineer. Also on the list were two harbour boatmen and the deputy harbour master. Despite what sounded some unseamanlike professions, few men who live on an island that is only 3'/2 miles long and l'/2 miles wide fail tohave strong ties with the sea. All these men could handle boats and, more important still, were well acquainted with Alderney's infamous coastline.

Time was short. The RNLI wanted the lifeboat to start her evaluation period during the winter season.

Already a Brede class had been earmarked for the station. Les Vipond, in a letter to Dr Ayoub on November 25 wrote: 'Last week I visited the builder's yard to witness an equipment trial on the lifeboat.

She is still without a name . . . but she is almost complete, and is every inch a lady.' (The lady was to become Foresters Future, the gift of the Ancient Order of Foresters and officially named on July 19, 1984 at Poole. She is the lifeboat now permanently stationed at Alderney.) Over the next three months the lifeboat crew-to-be, who may have known boats but who did not know lifeboats, were to undergo some very rigorous training. Running special courses to familiarise crews with new and complex lifeboats is now an essential part of the RNLI's operational role.

For the Alderney trainees, who were about to receive one of the most up-todate lifeboats in existence, a particularly intensive course was needed.

To start with, some of them were involved in the lifeboat's 40-hour trial after she had left the builder's yard.

Then three separate four-day sessions at Poole headquarters were organised so that every future crewman could receive the special training. Before eachsession they were given these objectives: (1) to understand a Brede's construction, capabilities and limitations.

(2) To be able to operate all the boat's equipment efficiently. (3) To be able to operate a Brede class lifeboat in the various sea conditions likely to be encountered on service by day and night. (4) To be able to navigate safely and (5) to be familiar with helicopter operating procedures.

There was a lot to learn, not only about how the boat worked and about her engines, but also the numerous safety and rescue drills that all lifeboatmen must know. There was also chartwork, navigation and above all mastery of the electronic equipment carried aboard a Brede class lifeboat. Radio procedures, operating the VHP direction finder, how the radar worked were all part of the curriculum.

Of course the training did not end with the four-day sessions in Poole.

After the final group's course was over, a training passage was made to Dover and back in the lifeboat, much of it in the heaviest weather January could throw at her. By this time, just as a jury often unconsciously selects its own foreman, so it became clear to the other crewmembers and to Les Vipond that Stephen Shaw, the deputy harbour master, would make the best coxswain. Hewas very familiar with his island's coastline too. As well as his harbour office experience he was a yachtmaster and advanced diving instructor which meant he knew many of the rocks both above and below the water line.

On January 28, 1984, Foresters' Future arrived in Alderney and the training continued for the next five weeks with either Les Vipond or his deputy, Chris Price, spending at least three days over each weekend, working the lifeboat in the seas around Alderney.

Exercises were carried out, some with Jersey and Guernsey lifeboats, by day and night, in good weather and bad.

All aspects of lifeboating were tested and proved, from boarding arrangements in the harbour using a D class inflatable to the range of sound from the maroons, and the use of the carriage which would transport the lifeboat clear of the jetty when she was craned out of the harbour.

Finally, after a simple but moving blessing ceremony, a momentous telexwas sent from Poole headquarters to all interested maritime organisations, including HM Coastguard, its French equivalent CROSSMA, Trinity House, Lloyds of London and the Ministry of Defence; it began: 'As from 1200 on March 10, 1984, a 33ft Brede class lifeboat will be placed on service at Braye Harbour, Alderney, Channel Islands, for a period of 12 months operational evaluation.' It was not a difficult evaluation to make. After 12 months the executive committee of the RNLI, meeting on March 27, 1985, were confronted with some very convincing statistics: the lifeboat at Alderney had launched 34 times, and saved 15 lives, her crew performing their duties to the entire satisfaction of the divisional inspector and the chief of operations. The committee voted unanimously for Alderney lifeboat station to become a permanent establishment.

The service to the Corinna mentioned earlier, when the lifeboat stood by while the cargo ship's crew scrambled to safety through waist-deep water and over the rocks to the shore, is just one spectacular example of the new Alderney lifeboat's activities since she was placed on station. In the week in which the ceremony to mark the station's re-establishment took place, as if to prove a point, the lifeboat was called out no fewer than five times.

The day of the ceremony itself, Friday May 10, 1985, was a very fine day. The Duchess of Kent arrived, resplendent in the strong spring sunshine and most of the island's small population were down at Braye Harbour to greet her.

Formal proceedings began with the station's chairman, Dr John Ayoub, welcoming their royal visitor. At one point his speech broke into French as he extended a welcome to the visiting French lifeboat crew from Goury whose lifeboat was moored alongside Foresters Future. Also present was the 52ft Arun, Sir William Arnold, from Guernsey whose lifeboating fraternity were well represented at the ceremony.

In his speech delivering the lifeboat into the care of Alderney station, Mr Michael Vernon, a deputy chairman of the RNLI, expressed his gratitude to the Duchess of Kent for the interest she takes in the Institution. In accepting the lifeboat, David Allen, the honorary secretary, thanked everyone in the RNLI who had helped to create the new lifeboat station, particularly Les Vipond who had played such an important part.

He hoped that the station would justify the trust the RNLI had placed in them.

The service of dedication which followed was conducted by the Very Reverend John W. Foster, Dean of Guernsey.

The Duchess of Kent then declared the lifeboat station open and presented to Mr Jon Kay Mouat, President of the States of Alderney, the vellum of thanks for rescue work carried out by Alderney boatmen in the 100 years in which there was no lifeboat at Alderney. Three cheers rang out for the Duchess and immediately a Royal Navy helicopter flew past streaming the RNLI flag.

The lifeboat crew then proudly demonstrated their new-found skills with a display, transferring a man from the lifeboat to the helicopter. Afterwards the Island Musicians jazz band, which had been providing the music for the ceremony, swung once more into action and their easy rhythms, coupled with the relaxed way the Duchess was chatting to as many islanders as she could before her departure, gave a firm impression that both she and Alderney were happy to have finished with formalities.

It was nevertheless an historic day for Alderney. In just two years a new focus of attention, a new purpose had come to the island. Already the lifeboat had carried out 39 services and now, whenever two loud explosions rudely herald another emergency, 2,000 people will be willing on their local lifeboat and her crew..