Rowing raisers No apologies for featuring RNLI fundraisers the Hythe Hookers again - these ladies are always seen to be up to something intriguing! On New Year's Day they dressed up as cops and robbers and took part in the annual Maldon little ship club row which raised £10,800 for the lifeboats - £5,000 of which was collected by the ladies alone.

The event attracted a crowd of 300 with 41 boats and some 100 people taking part in the 40 minute 'fun' race.

Charity fund Larry Lamberton (right), Whitstable lifeboat station honorary secretary and crew member Nick Dawkins (centre) recently received a cheque for £500 from Ian Pearson, manager of Brett Asphalt.

Last year the company set up a fund to mark the 60th anniversary of its tarmacadam and asphalt works in Whitstable harbour's east quay and the RNLI is one of three charities to benefit.

Christmas fayre In November 1997, the Thurso branch again held their Christmas fayre in the Royal Hotel. The special guest of the event was Mr Santa Clause who arrived by car due to the lack of snow but did manage to bring his bag of goodies which went down a treat with the children.

The fayre, which lasted for four hours, proved to be a great success and realised £875 for lifeboat funds.

._ Golden anniversary In November Southend lifeboat station celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first Christmas crew dinner. The event attracted some 500 guests to the Cliff Pavilion, Southend and raised £6.130 for lifeboat funds.

Cllr Jean Dunn, Mayor of Southend (centre), paid tribute to the lifeboat crews and Michael Vlasto, RNLI chief of operations (right), presented long service awards to retired fifeboatmen Roy West, John Fosset and Nigel Abbot. The event also featured a tombola and raffle, a demonstration of foul weather and safety equipment, and comedian Mike Pugh.

Tubbie raffle Soft toy replicas of TV's lovable Teletubbies have been quickly selling out in shops everywhere.

Ronald Benzie, owner of Exmouth store Thomas Tucker's, decided to keep two back to raffle for lifeboat funds and within two weeks, Laa Laa and Po had raised £200 for the RNLI.

Tim Mock, second coxswain/mechanic of Exmouth lifeboat, who helped promote the draw is pictured aboard the station's Trent class lifeboat with his son Henry who, coincidentally won Po. Henry agreed Po should go aboard the lifeboat to greet visiting school parties and bring a smile to the crew! Pollard presents Frampton Cotterell and district branch together with Homeworld invited actor Chris Chittell, otherwise known as Eric Pollard of television's Emmerdale to present the prizes in a local school lifeboat painting competition.

This together with souvenir sales and collection boxes raised over £820 for the day.

Dockyard rally L/feboat/the Royal National Lifeboat Collection at Chatham's Historic Dockyard was the backdrop chosen for the Rover P4 drivers guild invitation car rally held on 14 September.

Seventy cars attended the event, including a good turnout from the Sunbeam Talbot Alpine register, including the two vehicles shown opposite. Entry fees and a well supported raffle resulted in £330 being donated to lifeboat coffers.

Cromarty cash Cromarty on the Black Isle in the Highlands of Scotland held its boat club regatta in July. The Cromarty and Resolis ladies guild set a up stall to tempt both locals and tourists to part with their money.

The guild raised over £600 from the sale of home baking, souvenirs, plants and produce and, as can be seen from the smiling faces of the members, they enjoyed the day. It is hoped that this will be an annual event for the guild.

Not all submssions iK«vt J for the Spnng 96 osue ar* fenwed and rmy apptw in i future !iu* Sea Festival Arbroath Sea Fest held over 16 and 17 August 1997 proved to be a huge success for RNLI fundraisers - donations totalled £1.300, with the sales outlet raising £550.

The glorious weather attracted some 10,000 people each day and local traders, including fish merchants and chip shop owners made unexpected donations to Institution funds.

Storm Force hero. Stormy Stan, attended the festival much to the delight of all the younger visitors and quite a few grownups! Charlie's angels The Wells-Next-The-Sea ladies lifeboat guild held their annual Christmas bazaar last November which proved to be a great success, raising over £800 for Institution funds.

Charlie the lifeboatman, shown left with some of the ladies from the guild, was definitely the star of the show! Pub rush On a chilly December evening a team from Littlehampton fundraising branch set out on their annual pub rush and collected cash in aid of the RNLI.

Wearing yellow oilskins and carrying collection boxes and buckets, they aimed to visit as many pubs as possible in the Littlehampton and Arundel area during the evening. When they had finished at around 10.30, they had visited some 32 venues and collected £380 - topping last year's total.

Doubled up Eliza Fraser, Victoria Jones and Ella Neame teamed up on the last day of the Swanage regatta to paint stones collected from the seaside and sell them in aid of the RNLI.

John, Eliza's dad, volunteered to double whatever they sold and was staggered when sales totalled £15. Scotsman John, said he had as must pleasure as his ancestry would allow when he handed over the £30! Unfortunately, Victoria, who was on holiday at the time, had to have her appendix out the next day - lets hope this doesn't cause her any hangups about fundraising in the future… Corporate Fundraising by Nigel French Toshiba Wave Warrior The naming ceremony of the Atlantic 75 lifeboat Toshiba Wave Warrior took place on the 13 January at the London Boat Show (see News pages for full report).

The lifeboat was named by Simon Walker, skipper of the BT Global Challenge yacht Toshiba Wave Warrior. Funds for the purchase of the Atlantic 75 were raised by sponsorship of the RNLI crew members who competed on the BT Global Challenge.

Lifeboat Mastercard Also at the London Boat Show the Royal Bank of Scotland handed over a presentation credit card for £70,000, this being the sum received from the Lifeboats Mastercard for 1997.

Express Film Service Another record year for this service! A 2.5% increase in the number of films processed meant that we received in excess of £20,000. Following the introduction of the Kodak Advanced Photo System, we are now able to offer our members a fixed price film processing service together with a replacement Advantix film for an incredible £6.49 plus postage and packing.

'Scapa Flow in War and Peace' Over £2,000 has been raised from the sale of this book by W. S. Hewison (reviewed in the Autumn 1995 issue of The Lifeboat Copies are still available from Bellavista Publications, Carness Road, Kirkwall, Orkney. KW15 1TB, Price £9.00 including postage and packing.

At the beginning of November 1998 Grangemouth branch held their 24th annual Lifeboat Levee. After a splendid meal, provided and served by the ladies of the committee, the remainder of the evening was spent dancing. A marvellous tombola stall and raffle helped to raise a total of £1,539.

The Shakespeare pub in Bristol raised over £200 for the RNLI last Autumn by staging a drag mock wedding.

Two customers were bride and groom and after the mock service an auction was held.

In June 1997 three schools in the BuckffastMgh branch area took part in a sponsored swim raising £1.829 for the RNLI. Taking part were Buckfastleigri Primary, Buckfast St. Marys RC Primary and Ashburton South Dartmoor College.

Best dressed Tommy Taylor aged 85 in April has been a member of the Gravesend branch ] committee for over 25 years and box secretary for over 10 years.

This picture was taken at a film night, given by John Gamble, RNLI organiser for the South East, where Tommy got stuck in and demonstrated to local residents exactly what a lifeboat crew member wears.

Despite his great age Tommy is a very active and enthusiastic member of the branch and is a well known figure in the Gravesend area on his motor scooter, visiting local pubs and shops to empty the collection boxes.

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Semite frnm th« o.-• "'- • ' Scouts from the Bushey (Herts) area sing carols round the Christmas tree in Trafalgar square every year. In 1997 they raised £150 in just one hour for Bushey branch RNLI.

Gaftres Forest branch on the outskirts of York was formed in October 1997 and managed to raise over £ 1,000 in its first three months of activity. This very enthusiastic committee are hoping to organise one event per month and already have a Chinese banquet evening, prize bingo, clay pigeon shoot, fishing match and craft fair arranged.

Well over £1,000 a month - that was the impressive fundraising record of the Hitchin and District branch in the nine month period from April to December last year. Including receipts from the sales of Christmas cards and souvenirs, more than £10,600 was raised. Figures released by Eastern regional office show that of the 35 branches in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, Hitchin and District raised the third highest amount including sales items and came fifth excluding. It is not surprising, therefore that souvenir secretary Mollie Russell and branch secretary Phil Parish were each awarded the RNLI silver badge recently for all their sterling efforts.

Dave Booth of Hampshire, on a recent cruise aboard the Royal Research Ship Charles Darwin, raised £115 for the lifeboats from a sponsored haircut during his 40th birthday party.

Pill and District branch recently received a donation of a Hermes silk scarf. The branch feel this wonderful item, which features the RNLI logo, house flag and striking bright colours, must be worth a considerable sum but do not think they can raise anything like its worth locally. If any branches think they can raise a substantial sum for the RNLI from this scarf please contact Robert Buck, branch chairman on (01275) 373750.

yr N** _ In the Winter issue we featured the sponsored shave as a popular fundraising idea, this quarter we look at the power of the pedal… Kevin Close from Newport in Shropshire completed a sponsored bike ride from John O'Groats to Lands End in August last year raising £1,100 for the lifeboats. He was waved off by Thurso lifeboat crew at John O'Groats on 15 August and reached Newport on 24 August where he was greeted by the Mayor and invited to a reception hosted by the Royal Naval Association (RNA) club. Kevin was welcomed to Lands End on 29 August by Terry George. Sennen Cove lifeboat coxswain and an enthusiastic party from the Newport RNA club.

Lifeboat crews from Barrow, St Bees, Workington and Silloth used pedal power to ride along the coastal route from Barrow to Silloth on 24 and 25 August 1997. Visiting each station on the way, for liquid refreshment and moral support, and with a back up crew wielding collecting buckets en route, a grand total of £3,163 including sponsorship and donations was raised.

Hayling Island lifeboat crew organised a sponsored cycle from Hayling to Mudeford on 28 October 1997 to raise funds for the Mudeford lifeboat house appeal. Fourteen lifeboatrnen, including station secretary Nigel Roper, undertook the 38 mile route.

The team reached their destination 50 mins ahead of schedule and raised £1,500 which was presented to Hayling secretary Vic Derham by Nigel Roper and Rod James who organised the event.

A team of 12 cyclists covered some 80 miles in June 1997 raising £1,027 which will to go towards funding a new winch for Portsmouth lifeboat station. The team are known as the Boating Bikers as their circular route from Havant via Southampton, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and back again requires them to make eight ferry crossings!.