Blackpool push the boat out Members of the Blackpool lifeboat crew and ladies guild quite literally pushed the boat out on 10 September 1995, raising over £167 for RNLI funds.

An inflatable D class lifeboat was pushed along the promenade to North and South piers where passers by on the Golden mile were encouraged to swell lifeboat coffers.

A tired but happy band of crew and fundraisers returned to the boathouse promising to repeat the event in 1996.

Back to the future Scarborough has jumped into the 21st century thanks to the generosity of a local computer firm. When Mike Jennings of Jennings computer services, Scarborough, heard that the station did not even have a typewriter to its name, he jumped into action and presented the station with a £1,200 computer - to complete the picture, the crew used their own cash to buy a printer.

Richard Constantine, coxswain mechanic said, 'This was a magnificent gesture on Mr Jennings' part. Now we can keep the station records on disc and the equipment will be invaluable for our training sessions.' George Exley, station honorary secretary added that the equipment will be of great benefit to the crew and will also come in useful for any station work - if allowed to get his ha nd s on it!Cash advantage The MotorCyclingClub, founded in 1901, played host to the Penlee station branch fundraisers on Easter Sunday afternoonhelping them to raise a clear £300.

The event was the Land's End trial which, along with the Exeter and Edinburgh trials, has been run annually by the club since before World War I. From any one of the three starting points - Exeter, Bristol or Basingstoke, the 350 competitors, by car or motorbike, covered the best part of 400 miles on Good Friday night.

Much of it was by night and the route included hill-climbs, driving tests, and a strict time schedule. The lengthy column, running at one-minute intervals and taking six hours to pass, finished at Land's End on the Saturday afternoon and evening.

For the first time, a driving test was laid out on the promenade at Penzance, complete with jazz band and PA system provided by Penlee branch committee member, Peter Collins.

The chairman of the club, John Aley approached the branch chairman with the idea of the Penlee fundraisers taking advantage of this ready-made occasion.

Penlee ladies guild chairman, Mrs 'Binkie' Wallen set up a fundraising operation, it was also arranged for Penlee Arun class lifeboat Mabel Alice to put in an appearance off the promenade.

Pour on the pennies! A standard RNLI collection box proved to be a little on the small side for the Elizabeth Barn in Tunbridge Wells. Donations from patrons built up so quickly that a giant Martell bottle had to be used in the end - collecting a total of £109 for lifeboat funds.

General manager of the restaurant, Philip Sorak, pours out the collection to Jane Alexander, Honorary secretary; and Eddy Hannan, press officer of the Tunbridge Wells branch.

Photo: Courier Newspapers TV Celebrity tells tales! Raymond Baxter, television presenter and a vice president of the RNLI, lives in the area of the Wargrave fundraising branch.

Raymond played a key role in founding the Association of Little Ships of Dunkirk High flier RNLI Governor, Barrie Simpson- Wells marked his 65th birthday with an Alpine paraglider flight for charity.

The flight from the 7,500ft Plan d'Aiguille, filmed by a camera crew with radio instructions to keep him in sight, left Barrie short of the landing field in increasing wind, so he diverted under radio guidance to a field to the South.

This course also looked to be a long shot when radio instructions told him he would not be able to reach the field and should look for a clearing in the woods. Many a lowairtime pilot would have panicked at this but Barrie, keeping his nerve, put down between two moving cars on a residential road! A cool French driver promptly wound down his window and exclaimed, 'Bonjour Monsieur!'.

In January, following the film show of his flight, Barrie presented cheques for a total of £1,300 to the RNLI and Marie Curie Hospice in Penarth.

and owns one of these historic vessels. All these factors came together when a highly successful evening was organised by the Wargrave branch at which Mr. Baxter captivated a full capacity audienceof over 100 people during his talk about the little ships of Dunkirk.

At the end of the evening, which raised £850 for Institution funds, Raymond answered questions and signed autographs, including the signing of the book, The Little Ships of Dunkirk.

Lifeboat weekend The highlight of the recently held lifeboat weekend at Tregenna Castle, St Ives was the presentation by Mr Leslie Leek, managing Director of the hotel, to the director of the RNLI of a cheque for £700 together with £635 proceeds of souvenir sales and a raffle.

In attendance were countrywide shoreline members and members of Cornwall's 50 branches and guilds who enjoyed watching the launch of the St Ives Mersey class lifeboat The Princess Royal (Civil Sen - ice No 41), a search and rescue exercise with a helicopter from 771 Squadron RNAS Culdrose, and a visit to the new lifeboat house and souvenir shop.

The Director met and spoke to members of the Cornwall branches and guilds at a buffet lunch and also to shoreline members at the dinner in the evening.

All attending agreed it was a marvellous weekend and look forward to the repeat performance during the first weekend in November 1996.Central fundraising up-date Toshiba - You will have received a sponsorship form with this issue for our crew members on Toshiba Wave Warrior in the BT Global Challenge Round The World Race. We have now selected a short-list of 10, who will be interviewed by Chay Blyth and spend a day at sea before the final five are chosen. The intention is to fund a lifeboat from sponsorship returns, and additional copies of the form will be sent out to the Branches.

Royal Bank of Scotland - An excellent wine offer has recently been launched for card-holders, and the Bank has also recruited a company called Cardforce to promote the card at events throughout the country.

HMCA - This issue also carries a further flyer on the hospital and health care programme. The previous one resulted in 3,000 applications in the first two weeks, and the scheme has now been extended to age 75 for entry.

AGM - A variety of Affinity programmes were on offer at the AGM, including the Travel Club, RAC motoring, buildings and contents policies, crew and lifeboat models and the photographic service. We also promoted the Haven Knox-Johnston marine insurance policy, a new Petplan offer, which is again advertised in this issue, and the Small Share scheme, which has had a good start with a steady stream of small share certificates, which can be converted into funds once we have built up economic lots.

ExSpo '96 - Also this month we had a stand at the first sponsorship exhibition in London, where representatives from sport, the arts and charities met with potential sponsors to promote their or- Branch record Crowborough branch has just successfully completed its record year for fundraising - bringing in a total of £9,173 for Institution funds.

The branch covers many villages within the Kent/Sussex border including Hartf ield (home of Winnie the Pooh!) In this village during the last year, they have had presentations given by Charles Burton, partner of Sir Ranulph Fiennes in the Transglobal Expedition, and a similar presentation given by John Bagley who took part in the first British Steel Challenge.

Other events for the branch included a successful bridge drive at the Golf club, coffee mornings, a superstore collection and flag week.

ganisations in this very competitive area.

Barclaycard and Volvo - The end of June will see the naming of the lifeboat funded by the Profiles campaign, which raised £550,000. The boat - Barclaycard Crusader - will be handed over at Eyemouth in Berwickshire by the chief executive of Barclaycard. The following month sees the naming of the third Volvo boat Samarbeta at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston.

RNLI Raceday, Haydock Park - Following the great success of the 1994 Raceday, the event is being repeated on Friday, 6 September. The aim is to raise sufficient funds to buy a D class lifeboat for Lytham St Annes. Full programme of seven flat races. If you are interested, either corporately or individually, please contact the North West office.

Stamp Searchers - After a good innings Ken Jagger of Pilgrim Philatelies has given up his business, and first day covers and commemorative issues will now be produced for us by Jeffrey Booth of Stamp Searchers, whose address is in the classified section. Jeffrey also produces the annual Collect GB First Day Cover catalogue, so the business is in good hands. He is producing special RNLI postmarks as well.A picture of success Lady Winifred Hilton with the Deputy Mayor of Chesterfield as he presents the painting to raffle winner, Commander S. Sampson RN(Retd) A superb painting entitled 'Brig on a reef was a raffle prize kindly donated to the Chesterfield branch by local RNLI supporter Mr. Peter Wall.

On 12 February 1996, in the 12th Century Eyre Chapel in Chesterfield, the painting was presented to the winner. Commander S. Sampson RN(Retd) by the Deputy Mayor of Chesterfield. The branch president, Lady Winifred Hilton D. St. J. sent the grateful thanks to Mr. Wall for his generous gift and to everyone who had bought raffle tickets.

This support raised over £400 which has considerably helped to swell the branch's fundraising for 1996 to almost £10,000.

In Brief IVAN Simcock, Northenden branch chairman, has completed three long distance walks in the last two-and-a-half years and collected some £1,600 in sponsorship for Institution funds. In 1993 he walked the Pennine way from end to end, in 1994 he took part in a locally organised event on the Wirral and last summer made the coast to coast walk from St. Bede to Robin Hood Bay. In all, several hundred miles have been covered in all types of weather and over a varied terrain - most of it involving some quite high ascents.

IN SPITE of arctic weather conditions and several cancellations, Wroxham and district branch held a very successful 'pancake pop-in' event at the home of the branch president, Gillian Jeckells. The pancakes served up on Shrove Tuesday were either savoury, lemon, or butterscotch, including coffee sold for £1.00 each, raising a total of £220 for the RNLI.

THE ANNUAL auction of Coventry ladies lifeboat guild was held on 23 March 1996 at the local church hall, raising £1000 for RNLI coffers. The guild are very grateful to Mr.

Harvey Williams FRICS, the auctioneer who gave his services free of charge.

THE NEWLY formed Ipswich fundraising guild held a gala concert at the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook on 16 March - raising £2,350. The musical director, Mr Peter Crompton arranged a most enjoyable programme performed by the choral society, chapel choir, school band and some very talented soloists.

CELEBRATING their golden wedding anniversary, Mr and Mrs Hind from Wickford, Essex told their guests, 'please no presents - but if you wish, a donation to the RNLI would make us very happy'. The result was a cheque for £340 handed over to their local RNLI branch chairman.

THE FINANCIAL year ending in March, proved to be the best in the history of the West Wight guild, Isle of Wight. The sum of £33,859, including £24,660 from the sales of souvenirs, was sent to headquarters. Events during the year included a lucrative supper and race night, held at The Royal Solent Yacht Club in Yarmouth, which raised £471 for RNLI funds.Marathon lifeboatman Congratulations to Mark Petty- Mayor, crew member of the Southend- on-Sea inshore lifeboat, for taking part in the 1996 London Marathon to raise money for the RNLI.

This was Mark's first marathon, which he ran in an impressive 3 hours and 41 minutes, raising some £700 for Institution funds.Flower power John and Bet Waring, left, with Sutton Coldfield branch secretary, chairman and RNLI area organiser for Wales and West Mercia Sutton Coldfield branch is delighted to have raised £9,000 for the RNLI - not bad for a branch so far inland! The busy year included an Xmas fair, raising some £1100 and over £320 by a sponsored knit. A flower evening was held in March with professional arrangers, John and Bet Wareing giving a demonstration.The event raised in excess of £820 and the beautiful flowers were given as prizes in a raffle.

Busy fundraising Callander Many miles from the sea, Callander in Perthshire has a fairly large number of ex-seafarers living in the community and as a consequence, many enthusiastic RNLI fundraisers. RNLI Trossachs branch, recently held a very successful savoury supper at the Dreadnought Hotel, in Callander which donated a room, staff and cutlery for the evening resulting in a £1200 boost to lifeboat coffers.

Preparations consisted of branch committee members and their wives making something delicious to contribute to the table. The local butcher supplied the chippolatas - fresh salmon and trout came in from other sources, along with salads, chicken, other various meats, eggs, in fact almost everything you could think of! After the supper, an RNLI film was shown which was closely followed by a raffle with prizes of meals for two, donated by local hoteliers.

Credit account Duckhams, suppliers of oil used by the Institution's lifeboats, have been helping the RNLI now for over 20 years. The company donated £16,000 in 1995 as a credit to the RNLI's oil account, and this year Mike Stewart, sales manager (UK) for Duckhams announced that they will be donating a £19,000 credit to the Institution's 1997 account.Get knitted! Some 50 ladies put their needles together in Stourbridge on 11 March, and took part in the annual sponsored knit-in organised by Stourfield branch honorary social secretary, Pam Grice. The event has been running for over 20 years and this year raised over £1,500 for the RNLI.

The event, which produces blankets for help with emergencies in such troubled countries as Bosnia. The knit-in was held at the Page Arms by kind permission of the proprietor, Freddie DeFreitas, who has made facilities available since 1975. The ladies always look forward to the gathering and the opportunity to have a good chat with friends whilst they knit for a good cause! Brighton display This year's Brighton Boat Show was great success for the Brighton fundraising branch, resulting in some £1,600 raised for Institution funds.

A special mobile display unit supplied by RNLI headquarters proved instrumental in the day's achievements with £366 raised from the Volvo draw and some £918 received in donations alone! This was Brighton's second fundraising event this financial year, the other being a collection outside a local supermarket that raised another £269.

The A team A cheque to the value of £1,600 was presented to the North West Plymouth branch in January by The A Team'. This sum was raised by a combination of a sponsored swim, an auction over CB airwaves and a sponsored boat pull over 20 miles of Plymouth's streets which finished at Plymouth lifeboat station.Munching for money! A combined ladies and gents RNLI committee dinner was held at a local hotel in Borth on St. David's Day.

Guest of honour was Mrs Dr May Reed, donor of the new inshore lifeboat stationed at Borth. A most enjoyable dinner was had by all, followed by the prestigious ceremony of eating the leek!Falmouth funds Falmouth lifeboat guild organised a successful quiz night on 8 February 1996.

The event was held at the Falmouth Watersports Centre and many organisations who use the centre entered teams, as did local sailing clubs and groups.

Ron Allday set the questions and there was a good-natured rivalry amongst the 37 teams who took part, many of whom knew one another.

The guild committee were delighted with the response and nearly £300 was raised for the Falmouth lifeboats. The winners were the Old fools, second was Falmouth ladies circle and third, the Falmouth diving club.The Mayor of Dunstable was the guest of honour at the Dunstable branch pie, punch and carols event. The Toddington Band (pictured above) gave their time free of charge and the committee members made the pies and the punch. A most enjoyable time was had by all and a total of £300 was raised for lifeboat funds.In Brief MICHAEL Gray's sponsored cycle ride, mentioned in the Spring issue, has raised further cash - bringing the total amount raised to £1,451.

STUDENTS of the HND course in yacht manufacturing technology and marine industries at the Southampton Institute of Higher Education, held a raffle at their end of year dinner and dance, raising £154 for Institution coffers.

MEMBERS of Surbiton branch would like to thank supporter and friend, Michael Fletcher for putting on their Christmas dinner last year, which raised £1000 for the RNLI. This is the eighth event Michael has arranged for the branch, and over the years the branch have received some £14,000 from him.

ALMOST £300 was raised by Greasby branch in March with a singalong-a-lifeboat in the community centre. An evening supper and raffle, hailed a success by the branch committee and its singing audience, brought the year's total fundraising for the branch to over £1600.

SEATRADE, publisher of maritime journals and organiser of world-wide shipping events, have announced that proceeds from their 1996 Personality of the Year Award scheme will be divided between the RNLI and the Seatrade Sail Training Project.

BALLYWILLAN youth club, Portrush, held a sponsored badminton marathon and raised £300 which they donated to the RNLI. The honorary secretary of the Portrush lifeboat receiving the cheque from Gillian McKimm.Latest lifeboat fashions The Stratford upon Avon branch of the RNLI, together with Justina's of Stratford organised a highly successful evening of film and fashion at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Shakespeare Centre on 21 March 1996.

The evening started with the showing of the RNLI film, 'Call Out' to a packed audience, followed by a superb fashion show, presented by Justina. The stage was decorated to look like a cruise ship and the evening finished with four of the models showing the latest RNLI wear. The event grossed over £1,200.

Successful women Fine food, beautiful surroundings and excellent speakers were the promises made by the Liverpool ladies lifeboat guilds when advertising their ambitious fundraising project, 'successful women of Merseyside: a series of luncheons.' All of the promises were fulfilled and as a consequence £7,500 was raised for the RNLI.

Five luncheons, each with different menus, were held between October 1995 and February 1996 in the ballroom of Liverpool Town Hall.

The theme 'successful women of Merseyside' was chosen to reflect the fact that the RNLI has the enthusiastic support of many Merseyside women - ladies guilds and branches.

Baroness Chalker of Wallesy, patron of New Brighton, agreed to be patron and was herself one of the luncheon speakers. The four other speakers were Patricia Routledge, actress; Rosemary Cooper, former Lord Mayor of Liverpool; Elaine Griffiths, the first ever female cardio thoracic sugeon and Judge Elizabeth Steele.

Spurred on by the superb response, the Liverpool ladies guilds are planning a second luncheon series for the Winter of 1996/97.

Brixham AGM Members of Brixham lifeboat guild, at their annual general meeting recently, were delighted to learn that they had raised a record total of £41,991 for the RNLI in 1995/96, a 9% increase over the previous year's figure.

The highlight of the year's events was the all-day fish quay market which raised a total of £2,190, which included £1,015 in souvenir sales - the first time the branch has broken the £1,000 barrier in one event.

Flying start Nuneaton and district branch had a very good start to 1996, the flag day held in February, which was very well supported by local people, raised £1,500.

The branch, which reports to have a very busy year ahead, also recently held an exhibition in the local museum which ran for a month, displaying information on RNLI history and local branch events..