Farewell to Loch Ness for old lifeboat

This week the Loch Ness lifeboat volunteers said farewell to their old Atlantic 75 lifeboat as it departed the shores of Loch Ness for the last time on Tuesday 1st May. The Colin James Daniel, which has served the team well since it went into service on Loch Ness in October 2013, has now gone south to RNLI HQ in Poole where it will be decommissioned from service. Originally launched in 2000, it was one of the last Atlantic 75 class lifeboats in operation in Scotland.

When lives are on the line, speed counts and for several years the RNLI have been gradually replacing all the older Atlantic 75 lifeboats with the newer, faster and more advanced Atlantic 85 lifeboats. The volunteers who crew the new B class Atlantic 85 on Loch Ness know that they will be able to reach casualties faster with their new boat.

The new Atlantic 85 lifeboat Sheila and Dennis Tongue IV was built at the RNLI Inshore Lifeboat Centre on the Isle of Wight in 2017 and arrived at the new Loch Ness Lifeboat Station in January this year. It is the fourth and final lifeboat funded by legacy of the late Dennis Tongue, and will be formally named and dedicated later this month.

The RNLI is independent of government funding, and relies on bequests and donations to fund its lifesaving work.

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.

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