The Story of the Filey Lifeboats The Story of the Buckie Lifeboats by Jeff Morris published by the author, prices and availability in text Two more new editions of Jeff Morris's authoritative lifeboat station histories, each brought right up to date. As the Honorary Archivist of the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society few people have access to such detailed background material - including the well known Graham Farr Archives, built up by the late Graham Farr during his 20-year tenure of the same post.

Filey's lifeboat history is now known to extend back to 1804, although no records of this first lifeboat survive, and records of the second are incomplete until the RNLI took over in 1852.

As usual the whole history of the station is recounted in thoroughly researched detail, both in national records and locally around the lifeboat station, and illustrated with contemporary photographs of both lifeboats and boathouses stretching over the 130 years from the 1860s to the 1990s.

The Story of the Filey Lifeboats is available from G.

Cammish at 33 Muston Road, Hunmanby, N. Yorkshire YO14 OJY at £3 including post and packing.

Please note that books reviewed on these pages are notavailablefromthe RNLI.

Where the books are available only from one source an address will be wise readers should contact a good bookseller, quoting the title, publisher and the International Standard Book Number Buckie's lifeboat history was a slightly later starter, as it was not until 1860 that a lifeboat was sent to the busy fishing port.

Again both text and illustrations trace the development of the station and the lifeboats from the earliest pulling and sailing boats through to the current Arun class stationed there. The later years benefit from the presence of local photographer Ian Leask, whose images of the Arun in rough weather are some of the best.

The Story of the Buckie lifeboats is available from J. Fowle at 16 Titness Street, Buckie, Grampian AB56 1HR for £3 including post and packing.

Lifeboatmen Never Turn Back Poole lifeboat service from 1826 by Andrew Hawkes published by the Poole Historical Trust at £9.99 ISBN 1-873535-20-1 As a crew member on Poole's lifeboat since 1965 Andrew Hawkes has been able to draw on his own experience, together with an earlier works on the station in 1960 and Graham Parr's Wreck and Rescue of the Dorset coast to provide this comprehensive account of Poole's lifeboats, together with a brief history of two nowclosed nearby stations - the short lived inshore lifeboat station at Bournemouth (1965 to 1972) and the early station at Studland (1826 to 1850).

Poole is one of the RNLI's busiest stations (topping the 1995 'call out league'), so the book cannot and does not pretend to be a comprehensive list of every service performed.

What it does do though is to provide a very readable account of the area's lifeboat service.

In these days of reliable engines, close-winded sailing vessels and well marked dangers it is hard to realise that the approaches to Poole's enormous, sheltered natural harbour could be highly dangerous - a fact borne out by records of losses dating back to Viking times.

The station at Poole was founded in 1865, and the lifeboats have had a number of 'homes' within the vast harbour.

The then-remote North Haven point (now built-up and the site of the cross entrance chain ferry) was first, and the lifeboats migrated round the harbour via Fisherman's Dock and a local marina before coming to rest in their present location on moorings near the Town Bridge.

The station's inshore lifeboats have been extremely busy in the large shallow harbour and a chapter is given over to their history - which stretches from the one of the earliest in 1963 through to the present day. Poole was in fact the last station to use a rigid inshore lifeboat, outlasting all of the other A class boats to be withdrawn only in 1995.

An interesting and readable account, packed with detail.

Rogue Storm A True Story of Disaster and Survival in a Force 12 Storm by Tony Farrington published by Waterline at £18.95 ISBN 1-85310-735-2 This reviewer must admit that on picking up this book his first thoughts were -'what possible relevance can a book concerning a freak storm on the other side of the world and involving yachts from America, New Zealand and Australia possibly have to readers of THE LIFEBOAT?' The answer became very obvious within the first few pages of the first chapter.

Rogue Storm is one of the very few books in which the written word conveys the sheer magnitude of storms at sea, the effect they have on both crews and boats and the hopes and fears instilled in the people who experience them -both as casualties and rescuers.

Author Tony Farrington listened to the radio messages from the victims of this storm aboard his own yacht in the safety of Auckland Harbour, and subsequently sought out the people behind the voices he had heard - both rescued and rescuer - and encouraged them to tell their tales.

Twenty one people were rescued during the 72-hour storm - in which winds reached 100 knots and seas touched 100ft - three people were lost and several yachts fought their way through with varying degrees of damage.

Several were rolled, or pitchpoled stern over bow, and dismasted or were badly damaged in other ways. Aircraft and naval and commercial vessels struggled with appalling conditions in a remote area to save the lives of others caught in the storm - even launching inflatable and rigid inflatable dinghies in storm force conditions in mid-ocean to do so.

A gripping book, exciting on any level but very relevant to any small boat sailor. Well structured and informative, but above all an insight into the part played in survival conditions by the most complex part of a yacht's equipment - her crew.

Build your own boathouse Frank Kilroy, Station Honorary Secretary at Lytham St Annes, decided to mark the 1 Oth anniversary of the Lifeboat Museum (which is in the old boathouse at Lytham) by commissioning a special limited edition card kit of the building from kit specialists Alphagraphix. We have not had a chance to build one ourselves but Frank reports that given a sharp knife and a little time the kit builds into a very nice model. Certainly our 'review copy' seems nicely printed and with comprehensive instructions.

The kit is in 4mm to the foot scale ('OO' model railway scale) and costs £2.99, or £3.50 by post from Frank Kilroy at 35 Ripon Road, Ansdell Lytham FY8 4DS 179.