A sense of new beginnings makes Spring a good season for the naming ceremonies of new lifeboats and this year was no exception.

Namings included D class lifeboats for Fowey, Redcar, Clifden, Aldeburgh and the relief fl eet and Wales’s fi rst Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat was named in Aberystwyth. (See page 41 and Compass for more stations and details.)

Enniskillen said goodbye to the last two Atlantic 21 lifeboats in the on-station fl eet in March. The fi rst of the RNLI’s series of rigid infl atable lifeboats, the 21 was also the fi rst to be built from scratch at the Inshore Lifeboat Centre in Cowes, in 1970. Enniskillen now has an Atlantic 75 on both the upper and lower Lough Erne

.... and out with the old

As more advanced lifeboats go on station around the UK and RoI to help the RNLI’s volunteer crews carry out rescues in safer and more effective ways, what happens to the older craft they replace? Fifty-six lifeboats were released from RNLI service and sold last year. Priority was given to members of the International Maritime Rescue Federation and other rescue services. Nine were sold to the China Rescue and Salvage Bureau, fi ve to Iceland’s Ice-SAR and three to the KNRM in the Netherlands.