tHen AnD noW State of the art When crowds gathered in Dover on 10 July 1930 to see the naming of a new 20m motor lifeboat, they were to witness an historic moment for the RnLi.

named Sir William Hillary after the founder of the charity, the specially designed vessel was capable of 17–18 knots, twice as fast as any of her predecessors, and the first with a fitted cabin. she had been designed with speed in mind, so that crews could deal with rescues in the busy Dover straits and reach ditched aeroplanes before they sank.

the lifeboat was ahead of her time – it wasn’t until the 1990s that the RnLi began to produce all-weather lifeboats capable of more than 17 knots. indeed, there are still lifeboats on station today with a similar speed – the mersey and tyne classes. the RnLi is now planning to replace mersey carriage-launched lifeboats with a new class, currently at its experimental stage and codenamed Fast Carriage Boat 2, or FCB2.

FCB2 is intended to match the tamar and severn classes’ capability of 25 knots, a key factor in reaching casualties faster and so saving more lives. But this time such speed is provided not by propeller but water jet. trials have shown that, in extremes, the craft can even be driven directly onto the beach, to land casualties quickly or to make recovery in rough weather safer – the jet tunnels simply spit out stones! information gathered from FCB2’s performance will be used to design a prototype and then preproduction boat, hopefully the forerunner of service lifeboats planned to enter the RnLi’s fleet in late 2010. .