Our New Tamar Lifeboat Needs Your Help!

The new Tamar-class Lifeboat – and why we need it!

Help Us Bring Our New Tamar Lifeboat Home!

The Lizard Lifeboat’s biggest and most important fund-raising appeal in living memory is now well under way – and needs your help!

Throughout this website you can read about our lifeboat’s exploits, its proud 151-year history, our wonderful but dangerous coast and the rebuilding of our old, sadly outdated station.

 The £1.8 million appeal towards the £2.7 million cost of a new Tamar-class lifeboat will take The Lizard Lifeboat into a whole new era of saving lives: faster rescues with even more safety for our crew.

Every penny will count – and every penny will come from people like you, who think saving lives at sea is a magnificent calling. You will find a donate button right here to make it as easy as possible for you to help – please use it

A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRINCIPAL PATRON

We are absolutely delighted that The Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, Lady Mary Holborow, has agreed to be the principal Patron of our Appeal. Her message of support reads:

“I am very happy to be the principal Patron of The Lizard Tamar Lifeboat Appeal.
The Lizard Lifeboat has a proud 150-year history of saving lives in the dangerous seas off our most southernmost point, a location and record that make it one of Britain’s best-known and most cherished RNLI stations.

The new Tamar-class lifeboat will be able to reach craft in trouble much more quickly than the present 22-year-old boat, and will give The Lizard’s volunteer crew even greater safety during their “shouts”.

At the best of times, the Appeal for the £2.7 million cost of the new lifeboat would be an enormous undertaking. In today’s economic climate, in such a small community, it is an even greater challenge.

I wish The Lizard Appeal all the very best of success.”

Mary Holborow

Nick St Aubyn, a member of one of Cornwall's oldest families and author of a new historical novel "Custom of the County" based on a famous Cornish shipwreck mystery, has agreed to become a Patron of The Lizard Tamar Lifeboat Appeal. He joins our Principal Patron Lady Mary Holborow as two of our leading ambassadors for the Appeal.

'Custom of the County' is an exciting story of a shipwreck and skullduggery in Henry VIII's time close to Land's End, based partly on fact and partly on fiction. Nick has researched his family's papers and other documentary evidence to form the basis for his story. He has kindly allied his book to the Lizard Tamar Appeal, which is described in the back of it and part of the proceeds from sales will go to our Appeal.

Please click here to view PDF adout the book

The new Tamar-class Lifeboat is the latest slipway-launched all-weather lifeboat in the RNLI’s fleet.

Compared with our current 22-year-old Tyne-class boat, it is faster, more highly-equipped and even safer (and more comfortable!) for our volunteer crews when they are called out to help others. Because of The Lizard’s location, many of our “shouts” take place out in exposed seas, and the Lifeboat is often at sea for many hours at a stretch.

That is why we at The Lizard Lifeboat Station are delighted to be receiving one of these marvellous new boats from the RNLI – and why we need to help raise the £2.7 million that each Tamar costs!

We will all be working flat out to draw in the funds from all quarters.
Every donation, however small, will help us protect seafarers around our dangerous coast – and our crew.

Our Tyne-class boat David Robinson
has given – and continues to give – superb service, but the new Tamar will be able to reach casualties more quickly.

Here’s the science bit….
The Tamar’s hull is composite glass and epoxy resin, with a foam core sandwich structure above the water. Although lightweight, it is incredibly strong, with one square metre able to withstand a force of 68 tonnes.

Tamar’s power comes from her two Caterpillar C18 marine diesel engines, each generating 1,000 hp (that’s a bit more than a Formula 1 racing car), giving the Tamar a top speed of 25 knots. They also provide her with a towing capability of up to seven tonnes, which means that she can tow most boats or even hold a coaster off the shore while other help arrives.

The top speed of 25 knots can be maintained for up to 10 hours, giving her a range of 125 miles. She carries 1000 gallons of fuel.

The Tamar also has a small inflatable powered boat, which allows the crew to perform rescues in very shallow areas, close to rocks or caves and transfer personnel. This is stowed under the deck at the stern of the boat and can be ready to go in less than two minutes.

The boat can be helmed from two positions in the wheelhouse, with full electronic throttle and helm control at these seats – this means that actually there is no wheel in the wheelhouse!

Five seats in the wheelhouse are fitted with flat screens that form the interface for the integrated electronic Systems and Information Management System (SIMS) that provide access to all the boat’s systems and allows the crew to operate the boat from the safety of their seats.

One of the biggest risks for crew members aboard a lifeboat in rough seas is being injured while moving around. SIMS means that many on-board controls for operating and controlling lifeboats can be managed remotely and the crew can remain in their seats for longer.

Using the system also allows better task sharing between crew members as various functions can be monitored and controlled from virtually any location on the boat.

The main features and benefits of the new design

The features and benefits, when compared to the Tyne class, can be summarised as:

1. It is bigger: 16 metres as opposed to 14 metres for the Tyne.
   
   
2. It is faster: top speed of 25 knots, rather than 17 knots.
   
   
3. It provides more safety features: research shows that some accidents could be prevented if crew remain sitting, rather than moving around the lifeboat, during rough weather.

Facts and figures