News ‘A treasure trove!’ This is just one glowing comment from a visitor to the RNLI’s new Henry Blogg museum in Cromer – and now ‘official’ accolades have followed.

The building's contemporary design follows the curve of the cliff behind it and mirrors the Georgian crescent opposite. It has now earned architects Purcell Miller Tritton LLP a Graham Allen Award for Conservation and Design from North Norfolk District Council.

Opened by comedian Ronnie Corbett in April 2006, the museum’s centrepiece is the Watson class lifeboat HF Bailey, which served under Coxswain Henry Blogg (see Letters, page 13). Its many varied interactive displays have won the museum an Interpret Britain and Ireland Award.

Over 35,000 visitors came through the museum’s doors in its first seven months and many left their own tributes: ‘A lovely place that captures the imagination. Impressive and heart warming.’ 'The children loved it.' 'An excellent addition to Cromer's seafront and a fine tribute to the great man Henry Blogg and all the crews.' ‘I liked the big boat!’ The current inshore lifeboat station is next door and the all-weather at the end of the pier. The all-weather station will be temporarily closed to visitors this Spring while changes are made to the slipway for a new Tamar class lifeboat. Check rnli.org.uk/cromer to avoid disappointment.

For museum opening times, see rnli.org.uk/henryblogg or call 01263 511294.

Look out in future issues of the Lifeboat for news of developments at other RNLI museums. Dear Reader Welcome to the Lifeboat! You will find that the words ‘thank you’ feature strongly in this issue – as ever from volunteer to fundraiser and donor but also more unusually from survivor to rescuer. (As I write, the RNLI’s official rescue statistics for 2006 have just been published. See the central Listings section for details.) I’m in a truly privileged position as Editor of the Lifeboat, and not just because I know about the latest RNLI news before many others! As a day-today part of my job, I get to hear direct from lifeboat crew members and lifeguards, trainers and lifeboat designers, members and supporters, and even, sometimes, those who’ve been rescued.

Whatever apparently important issue my colleagues and I are struggling with simply fades away when we meet those involved in such matters of life and death. My hope is that you ‘meet’ them too, through the pages of the Lifeboat. Liz Cook, Editor P.S. Look out for some changes to the Lifeboat from Summer 2007 and the addition of a regional supplement so that you know more about what’s happening in your part of the RNLI. Keeping watch At the end of 2006, the North Sea claimed three fishermen’s lives; January 2007 saw the deaths of seven fishermen off the Republic of Ireland: just two horrifying statistics that highlight one of the most hazardous of industries. Fortunately, the RNLI-developed MOB Guardian system has been recognised as an essential lifesaving piece of equipment for fishermen.

MOB Guardian helps to ‘take the search out of search and rescue’, by tracking a vessel’s position and automatically alerting emergency services of a man overboard (MOB).

It has been showered with awards in the last few months (see panel).

The system uniquely combines man overboard and vessel-overdue monitoring technology with two-way communications with search and rescue services – all in a form that is robust in the harsh environment at sea and easy to use in life-threatening situations. The project team responsible comprises the RNLI Fishing safety team; manufacturer McMurdo; and satellite software supplier AWS.

The cost to fishermen of buying MOB Guardian has been reduced thanks to a substantial legacy from Miss Constance Linda Mary Hilton and Government fisheries grants (currently in England and Scotland only), and two major marine insurance companies.

For further information call 01202 663142, email [email protected] or go to www.mobguardian.com. Fishing News Awards 2006 • Winner of Safety category • Shortlisted for Technical Innovation • David Smith, RNLI Fishing Safety Coordinator, nominated for Personality of the Year SEAWORK Innovation Awards 2006 • Winner of Safety category British Computer Society IT Awards 2006 • Winner of The BT Innovation Flagship Award for Technology; the Mobile Computing Award and the Technology Award for Systems Design Week Awards 2007 • Runner up in the Industrial Product Design category RESULTS Lifeguarding to expand The RNLI’s Trustees have decided to expand the charity’s lifeguarding service beyond its current 62 beaches in the south and south west of England with the aim of doubling coverage by the year 2012. The success of this plan will depend on building strong and effective relationships with the relevant local authorities, not least regarding funding, so the locations involved have not yet been decided. Since their introduction in 2001, RNLI lifeguards have assisted nearly 47,000 people and directly saved 256 lives. The Lifeboat will bring you more information as it becomes available. Happy birthday! Round-the-world sailors Alex Thomson and Dee Caffari (pictured) were just two of the 700 people who signed up as RNLI members at the London Boat Show in January. They had joined the 10th birthday celebrations (sponsored by Old Pulteney Whisky and the Fox Bar at ExCel) of the Offshore category of RNLI membership, designed especially for those who actively use the sea. Alex, famously rescued from the Southern Ocean during the Velux 5 Oceans race by fellow competitor Mike Golding, commented:‘Believe me, if you have to be shipwrecked, the UK has to be the safest place in the world for you to do it, thanks to the RNLI.’ He wasn’t alone in thanking the volunteer crews.

Hundreds of messages of support for them were left by visitors to the RNLI’s stand, joining those from the Christmas mailing – see the address sheet accompanying this magazine for a selection.

For further information about joining Offshore, see page 15.

Current Offshore members can read more about Alex and Dee’s appearance plus the RNLI’s new Ambassador scheme for marine traders and its partnership with Ocean Training Ltd in the Spring 2007 issue of Offshore News. Whisky galore Old Pulteney sold 15,000 RNLIpromotional tubes of their ‘Genuine Maritime Malt’ over the Christmas 2006 period, donating £2 from each sale to the charity. Their support has continued at the London Boat Show (see page 3) and they are now offering readers of the Lifeboat the chance to win one of five bottles of their 12-year-old single malt with its ‘distinctive tangy, dry taste and mineral-salted spiciness that evokes the rugged, windswept character of the far North’.

To enter, send your name, address and supporter number by email to [email protected] with ‘Old Pulteney’ in the subject line, or on a postcard to Old Pulteney Prize Draw, RNLI, 20 Buckingham Street, London,WC2N 6EF, by 28 May 2007.You must be aged 18 or over.Winners will be selected at random from all entries received by that date and notified by 28 June 2007.

For more information visit www.oldpulteney.com. Million £ Challenge A joint bid by the RNLI and the Family Holiday Association is runner up in both the HBOS UK Million £ Challenge 2007 and HBOS (Ireland)’s first such Challenge.

The charities will benefit from a year of fundraising by HBOS staff. Look out for counter appeals in Halifax and Bank of Scotland branches, in May, August and November. A Fyne offer At their annual conference, held at The Lifeboat College in February, Loch Fyne Restaurants announced the RNLI as their first ‘charity of the year’. Their fundraising target of £125,000 is intended for a new Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat for Lyme Regis for 2012.

Loch Fyne’s Managing Director Richard Morris explains:‘We have a synergy with the RNLI in that we are reliant on fishermen to provide the products for our restaurants.

This is an ideal opportunity to support a much-loved and well-respected organisation.’ Loch Fyne is offering every RNLI supporter a complimentary bottle of house wine until 31 May 2007 (except for Easter weekend). To qualify, a minimum of two adult main courses must be ordered and the offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or with the set £10 lunch. Present your RNLI supporter card before ordering.

See www.lochfyne.com to find your nearest restaurant. Many supporters boost their donations to the RNLI by using Gift Aid. For every pound they give, the RNLI gets an extra 28 pence from the taxman. Thanks to these supporters, in 2006, this brought in an extra £3.7M! If you are a UK tax payer (and have paid sufficient tax within the tax year of your donation) the RNLI can claim back the basic rate tax paid on all your donations. If you are a higher rate tax payer, you can reclaim the difference between the higher and basic rate tax yourself.

For example, if you give £100 to the RNLI, it can reclaim Gift Aid of £28.20 and you can reclaim the difference between the two tax bands, £23.07. This means a £128.20 gift to the RNLI would have cost you only £76.93.

Alternatively, you can mark your selfassessment tax form with the RNLI’s code, HAB 39GG, and the extra sum will be paid over to the charity.

For further information see rnli.org.uk/giftaid or contact the RNLI’s Supporter Care team on 0845 121 4999. Recycling to save lives Recycling is all the rage, and not just for town councils. Now the likes of Lord Sebastian Coe and Dame Ellen MacArthur have joined in. They and other celebrities took part in an eBay online auction to mark the RNLI’s SOS day in January, raising a substantial amount for the charity – and if you use eBay, you too can recycle to save lives.

eBay for charity allows you to sell unwanted items and then donate some or all of the proceeds to the charity of your choice. Amazingly, eBay will then match your percentage donation with the same percentage of their fee.

For more information, log on to www.ebay.co.uk/charity or contact the RNLI’s Rebecca McCarthy at [email protected]. Open house The RNLI’s Headquarters in Poole, Dorset, is opening to the public on 21 and 22 July 2007.

This is a golden opportunity to see behind the scenes at The Lifeboat College, tour the different classes of lifeboat, watch rescue demonstrations, and get safety advice from the RNLI’s Sea Safety, Beach Safety and Education teams. Full details will be available nearer the time at rnli.org.uk or by ringing Headquarters. Cuddles, Steve and Puffin A trio of new arrivals at Burnham-on- Sea lifeboat station, Somerset, have been welcomed with open arms.

Joining a crew can be a nervewracking experience but it didn’t take long for Cuddles to settle in last year, especially when the existing crew discovered that he didn’t talk back, object to being thrown into the water or scoff their biscuits! For Cuddles was their new 70kg rescue dummy, kindly donated by the regulars of the Orchard Inn at West Huntspill after a series of fundraising events.

Steve Atkinson (pictured above) has been equally willing in his training. A tractor driver at New Quay lifeboat station, Cardiganshire, he moved to Burnham for work and was accepted as a lifeboat shore helper in 2003. However, when he applied to join the crew, disappointment came – he found his eyesight didn’t meet the RNLI’s standards. Not to be deterred, Steve went for laser eye surgery until finally, in July 2006 and after six years of perseverance, his dream to become a lifeboat crew member came true. Burnham-on-Sea (not to be confused with Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex) is considered one of the RNLI’s newest lifeboat stations yet it located a series of 10-oared lifeboats there from the mid 1800s–1930. The introduction of longer-range motorised lifeboats along the coast led to closure then, after 64 years, the independent Burnham Area Rescue Boat launched. Invited to return in 2003, the RNLI now operates two inshore lifeboats at Burnham, an Atlantic 75, Staines Whitfield, and, since December 2006, a D class, funded by Mrs Oonagh Mitchell of Oxfordshire: Puffin. This delightful name will be officially bestowed at a ceremony on 12 May 2007. .