Today, RNLI lifeboats are designed and built in-house. Soon, we will be fitting them out and doing their maintenance too, as project leader David Price explains ...

The pace of change in our day-to-day lives is ever increasing and here at the RNLI we are no exception – nor should we be. I firmly believe that it's imperative for our wonderful charity, with its proud history, to be prepared for future operational needs and to be energetic in its approach to change. That way we'll continue to save lives at sea long into the future.

PRIDE AND PRECISION
The last half century has seen the extraordinary evolution of our all-weather fleet from the externally designed and built woodenhulled fleet with a top speed of 8 knots to the sophisticated, composite-hulled and in-house-designed 25-knot craft that we see on our coasts today.

I shall never forget being taken as a young lad into a large, creaking (and probably leaking!) corrugated shed in Beaumaris, Anglesey, and being shown an Oakley lifeboat in refit. I can still recall those distinctive boatyard smells of traditional paint, freshly machined timber and working machinery. I can visualise the numerous wooden buoyancy tanks lined up in their fresh white livery, each with its unique location and number carefully stencilled in black – surely the ultimate 3D puzzle.

The hull itself, majestic on its chocks, was stripped back for painting with small holes visible everywhere from the countless fastenings removed for replacement. I can still hear the pride in the voice of the shipwright who worked on her, describing the detail and care that went into such a refit.

Yet this is no simple nostalgia. Advances in crew safety and the effectiveness of the fleet have been immense in the intervening years but some qualities are timeless.

Wooden hulls were phased from the 1970s. The hulls and decks of today’s fleet, which is widely considered to be the finest in the world, are precision-built of glass, carbon fibre and epoxy composites requiring specialist skills and large processing ovens to cure the resins. They're fitted out with electronic, electrical, mechanical and safety systems to produce the finished products, which outperform their predecessors at so many levels.

FAR SIGHT AND COURAGE
In February 2011, we reached a milestone. We agreed a new strategy for our all-weather lifeboat fleet that will take us through to 2030. At its heart is a smooth, steady production of six new boats every year. First, to build at least 50 of the new Shannon class to replace older lifeboats, including Tynes and Merseys, and bring the entire fleet capability to 25 knots. Second, to build more Tamars and to radically upgrade our Severns.

We studied the UK and Irish boatbuilding industry and found that fewer and fewer boatbuilders were willing to work to our unique specifications – bringing the risk of escalating costs and concerns over the quality we needed.

So we explored a new approach instead: to create a single, purpose-built all-weather lifeboat construction, refit and maintenance facility on our Headquarters and College site at Poole, Dorset. This would complement our long-established inshore lifeboat building and maintenance centre on the Isle of Wight – and give us the control we need to complete our vision. This recommendation was fully endorsed by our Trustees in April 2012.

At the time of writing, planning permission is being sought to redevelop the existing Lifeboat Maintenance Centre Yard, which houses a hotch potch of lifeboat maintenance, lifeguard management, training, heritage and storage facilities. If we are successful, and if we gather sufficient funding, we will level the site, raise it by a metre or so and then build and equip our very own facility.

EXPERTS AND EXPERIENCE
Taking such a big step and making such a big investment is actually a natural progression. Inspirational, innovative and above all effective all-weather lifeboat designs have been created by the RNLI’s own naval architects for a number of years now. The serviceproven Tamar class and the Shannon prototype are fine examples of this work.

Further, we already run an all-weather lifeboat maintenance centre in Poole and we already produce hulls, decks and wheelhouses for our all-weather lifeboats at our subsidiary company SAR Composites Ltd in Lymington, Hampshire. Here, we've improved quality and reduced build time by 30% since 2009. This has provided us with the confidence to take this next step.

TIMELESS QUALITIES
During a recent visit to our unit in Lymington, I again noticed the pride in the voice of the charge-hand as he showed me the various stages of the intricate production of the hull and decks. He said: ‘These are so strongly built that if ever the proverbial bomb were dropped, I reckon I'd be happy to take my chances in one of these beauties!’

My belief is that what we're proposing will surely result in a world-class centre of boatbuilding excellence, that will make the most efficient use of our generous donors’ funds possible.

Just as importantly, I see it staffed by a committed and skilled team who will maintain the long tradition of taking pride in their work; pride that will continue to ensure that lifeboats, on which the lives of our volunteer crews and others depend, will continue to be built to the highest, RNLI, standards. I do hope you agree.

Our own All-weather Lifeboat Centre will:
• reduce our dependence on an ever-reducing number of suitable external boatyards
• safeguard our exacting standards, which keep our volunteer crews safe at sea
• save the RNLI £3.7M every year
• create 90 new jobs and some new apprenticeships
• contribute to Poole's flood defences
• be a place where the public can see how our experts build lifeboats.