. . . and farewell to the 35ft 6in Liverpool class lifeboat, a class which has served the RNLI, both as a pulling and sailing lifeboat and then as a motor lifeboat, since the mid 1800s. Grace Darling (below), built in 1954, the last of her type in RNLI service, sailed from Arklow, Co Wicklow, in October to take up permanent residence at the National Lifeboat Museum in Bristol.

She served first at North Sunderland, then at Flamborough and finally at Youghal, Co Cork until.