The RIB:
The Rigid-hulled Inflatable
Lifeboat

by David Sutcliffe
Review by Carol Waterkeyn

This is the unusual record of a very special college created from the vision of Educationalist Kurt Hahn in 1962; the determination and steadfastness of first Headmaster Rear Admiral Desmond Hoare; and health and safety practices that certainly wouldn’t be allowed today!

Author David Sutcliffe was a member of staff at Atlantic College in south Wales, and Headmaster from 1969 to 1982. He is uniquely positioned to write about the development of the Atlantic rigid inflatable lifeboat at the college and the trials and tribulations of bringing the lifeboat design from paper to reality. Add to that a bunch of international sixth-form students, many prototype boats along the way, and the craft’s later adoption by the RNLI and other lifeboat services, and the whole account becomes a strange melting pot of influences.

The RIB has transformed boating the world over, not just at the RNLI. The College also continues to exist today with a new name – the United World College of the Atlantic. Since 1964 it has, in addition, been the location of one of the RNLI’s lifeboat stations. Situated on the edge of the Bristol Channel, and with a tidal range of up to 15m, it is one of the most challenging locations to sail in the world.

Lifeboats there are still crewed by the students and staff – some of whom were the charity’s first-ever female crew. As well as being a fascinating historical record on the development of lifeboats, this book is also a heart-warming story, sometimes so surprising you could be forgiven for thinking it was fiction – but I promise it isn’t.

Paperback book
Published by Granta Editions
ISBN 9781857571035
Price: £15