OK, so I've had Rob on the 'phone to re-brief me regarding future lifeboats at Swanage. It turns out that I was part right and part wrong in what I said a few days ago regarding FCB2. I'm afraid I had been guilty of making a few assumptions and, in the words of a former Commanding Officer of mine, 'Assumption is the mother of all cock-ups'!So what is the genuine inside story? We'll, in this Lifeboat exclusive I can confirm today that, everything being equal, Mersey class lifeboats will all be replaced by FCB2. This includes us so FCB2 it will be. However, FCB2 is NOT designed to go on a slipway and it is NOT intended to change this. So, we will get FCB2 but as yet it has not been decided how we will operate it. Options, and this is pure, dangerous speculation on my part include lying to a mooring, being alongside a jetty, having a pen or being on a carriage in a re-designed boathouse. How exciting!
Watch this space for developments as they occur. I will make sure that in future I get at least some of my facts straight...(no comment needed Dave)!
(Photo: thanks to the RNLI image library)
3 comments:
Is it me or is the FCB2 ALOT smaller than the Mersey but I'm no expert?
I'm not sure of the overall dimensions (and don't forget that the hull shown in the picture was the first hull which will not now go into production. I understand that the boat will be about a metre longer than the Mersey so roughly 13 metres (hull numbers will therefor start with 13-01)
However...given my recent track record that may be complete rubbish!
Seems hard to imagine Swanage without a slipway launched boat after all these years. It's a sight I never tire of watching and would realy love to have been on board to see what it actually feels like.
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