The RNLI's Head of Public Relations, Edward Wake-Walker, concludes his report from the 1995 International Lifeboat Conference with a look at the development of new lifeboats around the world and initiatives to improve safety at sea There is a common thread running through the design of every new lifeboat - the struggle to combine speed with ability in extreme conditions. Inherent self-righting ability is a feature of most new all-weather designs throughout the world, although one exception is the smaller of the Dutch fast rigid inflatables, the 10.6m Valentyn class. She has an open wheelhouse, and although she will right herself automatically from up to 135° she relies on a manually operated righting bag in a total capsize.

Holland The conference was shown some breath-taking footage of both the Valentyn and the 14m Johannes Frederik class sprinting through heavy seas during recent gales. There are now seven of the former in operation and five of the latter.

The Dutch have begun working on the prototype of a smaller (9m) version of the Valentyn and have also modified the hull on their latest Johannes Frederik boat. By deepening the V forward and using a finer, extended bow they hope to reduce the amount of lift in a head sea and to lessen slamming.

Italy One country very keen to acknowledge the value of the ILF was Italy, whose Coast Guard's membership has enabled them to obtain plans to build multi-purpose boats based on the RNLI's Barnett and Arun classes. In a recent move to separate their search and rescue role from other duties they have embarked on a programme of building rigid inflatables, following the Dutch Valentyn design, to be used exclusively as lifeboats.

Aland Aland, the Finnish island in the Baltic sea with a lifeboat organisation of its own, had a cautionary tale for other small lifeboat societies designing new lifeboats from scratch. With very limited resources and under local government control they set out to build a one-off all-weather 16m boat. Although they will finally end up with a serviceable lifeboat, their lack of direct control over the project meant that it went way off course, fell months behind schedule and produced a boat five tonnes over the specified weight.

France A much happier story came from the French who needed a specialised boat for their station on the island of Ushant, where the unique launching conditions required better protection of keel and propellers than standard French lifeboats could provide. In the process of designing this boat they also successfully developed an improved method of providing engine ventilation in the event of capsize. Instead of using flaps to prevent water entering the vents on this new lifeboat are on the transom where the boat's stern-up attitude when inverted keeps them clear of the water.

USA Meanwhile in the USA, a painstaking programme of operational evaluation has been taking place with the prototype and five pre-production versions of the 47ft aluminium lifeboat developed for the US Coast Guard. Six typical stations and crews were selected for the trial and the feedback was plentiful and informative. The results were very encouraging, not least the excellent towing ability of this craft. One of the boats suffered a 137° roll during evaluation near the Oregon Inlet, and although she righted successfully the Americans are investigating the stalling of one engine during the knock-down, a fault which also occurred on another boat after a 53° roll.

Britain and Ireland The RNLI was also able to update delegates on its programme of development and evaluation of the Severn and Trent class prototypes. Some of the modifications incorporated in the production boats and resulting from feedback from the coast included a bow thruster for the Severn and revised wheelhouse configuration on both classes.

Safety at Sea If the business of lifeboats is to react to incidents, the business of the conference extended a little further - to consider the prevention of incidents. In his address to inaugurate the conference the outgoing President of Uruguay, Dr Luis Alberto Lacalle, emphasised his concerns that seafarers minimised the risks to themselves and their rescuers. The same view was echoed by IMO chief, William O'Neil, who, while praising volunteer lifeboat crews, expressed his grave disappointment that so many countries had failed to keep their promise to install shore-based GMDSS facilities and that only 15% of all ships had so far been adapted for the system.

For the first time at an International Lifeboat Conference, the Dutch, the Irish and the UK coastguard organisations addressed papers about their operation and the measures they take to ensure safety on the sea.

An intriguing paper from the Italians described a 'Safe Beaches Project' whereby mobile lifeguard/lifeboat stations were set up at busy public beaches during the peak holiday periods. These temporary stations took the form of a caravan and an inflatable boat on a trailer and took care of all beach safety and rescue.

Finally, if one benefit of this conference was to learn from others' experience, the paper by the RNLI on sea safety and the use of statistics showed how more lessons can be drawn from past mishaps. The Institution is developing a computer programme which will help it, and other safety organisations, analyse the causes of accidents to seafarers from the detailed computerised records kept of every lifeboat mission.

Four years from now when the next conference takes place in the UK there should be some useful information to pass on to fellow lifeboat societies from this valuable data base.

The 1995 conference of the International Lifeboat Federation was held in Montevideo, Uruguay between 12 and 17 February. The first part of this report appeared in the Spring 1995 issue of THE LIFEBOAT.