RNLI Morecambe Lifeboat - Lancashire UK
Posted by: 
martlakes
N 54° 04.500 W 002° 51.813
30U E 508928 N 5991874
The inshore station on the promenade at Morecambe with a D-class boat is also home to the first operational hovercraft in the RNLI.
Waymark Code: WM3HQ8
Location: United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/08/2008
Views: 23
An inshore lifeboat (ILB) station was established here in 1966 and a boathouse was built on the Promenade. Construction of the present boathouse was completed in November 1998, situated east of the old one. It has been designed to blend in with the new sea defence works. The current boat is D-564 'Peter Bond'.
Along with three other stations, trials of a new hovercraft design were carried out at Morecambe for two weeks in July 2001. The trials were extremely successful at all stations and Morecambe was allocated the first one. A new Griffon 470TD was delivered on the 13th December 2002 and H-002 went into service on the 23rd December 2002. H-002 was donated by Kay Hurley MBE and in 2003 the hovercraft was officially named 'The Hurley Flyer'.
The Morecambe craft are trailer launched on specialist transporters. They can also be taken by road the 4 miles to the tidal River Lune, which is a lot quicker than going by sea the 19 miles around Sunderland Point. They are regularly called to rescues in the river.
Morecambe Bay is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of 310 km². The sandbanks are coupled with fast tides with a 10 metre range, all of which means the lifeboat stations around the Bay are busy all year round.
For more info see the RNLI site: (
visit link)
And: (
visit link)