Offshore is a new grade of RNLI membership, intended especially for those who use the sea - rates and details are on the following page.

Offshore members receive various benefits - including discounts on marine equipment.

Offshore will be launched officially at the 1997 London Boat ShowThe RNLI's Membership scheme has provided the lifeboat service with a regular and reliable source of income from Shoreline members and Governors for more than 25 years. People from all walks of life become members; some of them are active sea users, some only come into contact with it from the deck of a ferry and some barely see salt water, let alone venture out on it.

Among the 200,000 people who regularly contribute their £15 are some who should really be putting their hands a little deeper into their pockets — and who have actually asked to do so when surveyed recently.

They are those of us who regularly put to sea, mostly for pleasure, and who are also most likely to be 'customers' of the RNLI.

For more than 30 years I've sailed the Channel and North Sea coasts, never really thinking about getting into trouble or which lifeboat station is closest, but always subconsciously comforted by the thought that the RNLI is there. Knowing that there are men and women willing to drop everything to help me if things go wrong; knowing that there are welldesigned and well-equipped boats, which are capable of coping with the conditions that I can't, dotted around the coast.

If I'm willing to pay the best part of £100 a year to the RAC just to reduce the inconvenience of a car breakdown - rarely a life-threatening mishap - then surely I should be willing to stump up more than fifteen quid a year for people who might save my friend's and family's lives? Even club membership, having the convenience of a shower, bar and somewhere to park the dinghy, runs into three figures for joint membership of most sailing clubs these days, a sum most of us pay each January with only a token grumble.

I'm a small boat sailor myself, so I don't subscribe to the 'rich yottie1 theory - I know that most 'rich yachtsmen' forego many other things to keep their boats in commission. But I do subscribe to the 'right priorities' theory, and supporting the RNLI is high on that list of priorities.

That is why I'm asking every reader of The Lifeboat who sails, has a windsurfer,motor boat, speedboat or jetski to join the new RNLI membership grade - Offshore.

Yes, it's more expensive than Shoreline membership - but shouldn't we, the ones most at risk, be paying a membership fee which reflects that? Even the £40 Offshore membership fee is less than an average annual antifoul bill, and is frankly still a paltry amount compared with the cost of running even a windsurfer. The fee may be £40, but I'd urge you to think of that as a minimum! If you're still undecided take a look at the next few pages of this issue, the reports of lifeboat services. Lifeboatmen from Aldeburgh, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Swanage have all been awarded medals for their bravery in services to yachts - small yachts and large yachts, south coast and east coast. And no less than three of those medals were on one day in August.

Yes, August. Not 'iffy' autumn weather, or trying to make a risky passage in winter, but August - the peak of the sailing season. How many of us could have been at sea that day, and how many of us could have survived the conditions unaided? Even the most well-found yacht is out of her depth when a NNW Force 11 whistles down the East coast in the week after the Bank Holiday, yet lifeboats were there, ready and willing to make 11 and 15 hour services in appalling conditions to save them.

We, the ones who go to sea for pleasure, account for more than half of all lifeboat launches - so let's help the RNLI to help us, by paying our fair contribution.

And Offshore is not all one way. Members qualify for discounts on equipment from some major marine equipment suppliers. Don't think about making a profit, but be comforted by the savings and that these suppliers recognise the value of helping the RNLI in any way they can.

I'll leave the last word to Paul Fryer, the skipper of Be Happy, a 90ft yacht caught out by the remains of hurricane Lili off Swanage: 'In atrocious conditions, with winds exceeding 78 knots Be Happy had broached twice and taken on water from a stormshattered window, the hydraulic steering was failing and the electrics short circuiting.

'... the lifeboat was driven alongside and the crew were helped aboard the lifeboat. The bravery of the men on deck who helped us aboard and the skill of the coxswain in holding the boat in position could not be surpassed...' 'I was extremely impressed by the professionalism of the whole organisation and feel strongly that some sort of recognition of bravery should be bestowed on the crew of that night. The weather and sea conditions were appalling, but despite the fact they were an engine down they still came to our rescue, feel that we can never thank these men enough...' There's a phone number for Offshore on the next page - call it now!.