1998 saw two historic lifeboats return to the water - and both most appropriately in the area where they served as active lifeboats.

At Beinhridge the Coxswain of the current lifeboat Martin Woodward, saw years of tenacity come to fruition when Queen Victoria was relaunched in June.

Mart in bought the 1887-built pulling and sailing lifeboat almost ten ycats ago. after she had been used as ;i houseboat toi many years.

A considerable amount of Martin's own money went into retrieving her from the mud of Bembridge Harbour and sinrmg her while he searched for someone to restore her to her former glory. Eventually, after Martin had tried numerous concerns who considered (he job too daunting, the Classic Boat Museum at Newport on the Isle of Wight look on the lask - and one year and nearly £30.(KK) later the lifeboat was back on the aters she knew so long ago.

An interesi-free loan from the local council and donations from local companies all helped with the restoration cost, but there is still a large sum outstanding and Queen Victoria has to pay her way! She is available for suitable events in return for a donation and has also been booked for several fundraising occasions. By the time this issue of The Lifeboat appears she should have been on a 10-mile sponsored row round the Nab Tower; taken part in the Bembridge lifeboat regatta; competed in llie Cireut River Race in London and completed u sponsored, two-stage row around the Isle of Wight.

Queen Victoria served at Bembridge between 1887 and 1907. and Martin believes she is the oldest surviving RNL1 l i t e - boat.

• Queen Victoria Is due to lake part in the KM Ts 175th anniversary rally at Poole in 1999 1998 has been a good year for the restoration of historic lifeboats with both Bembridge and Polperro seeing old boats back in their home waters ... and at Polperro in Cornwall the 96- year-old pulling and sailing lifeboat Ryder was rowed into the harbour on 1 August for a re-dedication ceremony and the official opening of the Ryder exhibition by yachtsman Tony Bullimore - who was recently rescued from the Southern Ocean by a much more modern rescue service, Built in 1902 by The Thames Ironworks in West Ham. London, tfu/rrhad ser ed at nearby Looe unt i l 1930 when the two neighbouring stations at Plymouth and Fowey acquired motor lifeboats and Looe was dosed.

Ryder was sold for £65 and nothing is known of her history during the next 28 years until she was known to be in Bristol as a houseboat. In 1962 she was mmed in We) mouth by train and continued in ,i houseboat, changing hands again in 1987 and suffering a bad fire.

At the end of that year she was lying derelict in the Fleet - the stretch of water inside the Chesil Beach - and was about to be burned.

By great coincidence the commandant of the nearby Roya! Engineers camp was a Looe man. Identifying Ryder as a historic p u l l i n g and sailing lifeboat he arranged for her recovery and. after a cosmetic restoration, she w as exhibited by the local brew - ery at their quayside premises in Weymouth.

When the brewery closed in 1994 the lifeboat was scheduled to be destroyed, but the Lions Club oi Looe, learnt of her existence and tried to bring her home to Looe. They were not able to aehiexe this.

but in 1995 the Polperro Harbour Trustees decided to recover her and restore her as a major exhibit at their Heritage Museum.

After a three-year restoration at ihe boatyard of Alan Toms in Polruan - funded by grants and donations from local companies - Ryder was again seaworthy and able to return to her home waters almost a century after she first arrived..