Lifeboat Recovery.

[oldgit]

Spent weekend at Ramsgate.Bit breezy around the North Foreland over weekend so we visited Margate (OAPS by bus for free ) and lifeboat had obviously been called out.
Interesting recovery method.
Would appear that boat is run up on to beach and when tide goes out boat is collected and returned to base.

Turner Gallery in background.Some interesting stuff at moment,as opposed to the usual Tracy dirty bed rubbish and half a shark carp.

 

[AndieMac]

Interesting way to winch the boat onto the trailer and some nice recovery toys on the beach. A couple of very serious prop tunnels also, thanks for posting OG.

 

[cryan]

I think most Mersey class are launched and recovered on those tractor and trailer rigs. Anstruther boat is the same although they drive the tractor down a stone slipway. I don't see why they wouldn't float it on? Perhaps tractor was N/S when they came home?

 

[Mr Googler]

Those tractor units can be virtually submersed for a short time. Impressive stuff. The same set up at Ramsey over here.

 

[Bajansailor]

Here is an interesting video on Youtube of the Mersey class lifeboat at Hastings - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQhaqR5ajM

The first five (or thereabouts) Mersey class boats were built in aluminium, and the rest were all composite (epoxy, glass and foam cores), same as the subsequent Severn, Trent, Tamar and Shannon classes.

The Shannon will be the replacement for the Mersey - here is a good video showing her being launched / recovered off the beach at Llandudno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiqyxa7NYpE
She has waterjets (finally!), hence no need for tunnels to protect the propellers.

 

[AndieMac]

Here is an interesting video on Youtube of the Mersey class lifeboat at Hastings - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQhaqR5ajM

The first five (or thereabouts) Mersey class boats were built in aluminium, and the rest were all composite (epoxy, glass and foam cores), same as the subsequent Severn, Trent, Tamar and Shannon classes.

The Shannon will be the replacement for the Mersey - here is a good video showing her being launched / recovered off the beach at Llandudno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiqyxa7NYpE
She has waterjets (finally!), hence no need for tunnels to protect the propellers.

Cheers Martin, thanks for finding those.

Regarding the Shannon, was it the wind noise muffling the sound of engine warm up (a type of keel-cooling?) or did the guys just launch and full stick on a cold engine?

 

[Bajansailor]

I think that on the Merseys they have a tank on board with a closed circuit cooling system for the engines while the boat is still on the carriage, and I am guessing that the Shannon probably has something similar (?).

The Merseys used to have very sophisticated turntables on their carriages for turning the boats around, but the carriage in the photos above looks much simpler.

(I am a bit out of touch with the RNLI boats now - worked in their design office for a while, but left 19 years ago).

 

[oldgit]

I think that on the Merseys they have a tank on board with a closed circuit cooling system for the engines while the boat is still on the carriage, and I am guessing that the Shannon probably has something similar (?).

The Merseys used to have very sophisticated turntables on their carriages for turning the boats around, but the carriage in the photos above looks much simpler.

(I am a bit out of touch with the RNLI boats now - worked in their design office for a while, but left 19 years ago).

Recent post elsewhere on forum indicated that there is a cooling system aboard to keep engine going for 5-10 mins.Apparently something similar is also in use on the small assault craft used by RE based down here on Medway.
Seem to remember a couple of the craft high and dry on a mud bank waiting for the tide to refloat them.

 

[SAMYL]

How do they refloat it if it is needed for an emergency when the tide is out?

 

[prv]

How do they refloat it if it is needed for an emergency when the tide is out?

There's a misconception above that they wait for the tide to go down as part of the recovery procedure. They don't - they drive the boat at the beach at speed and let it run as far up as possible. The tractor (which is fully submersible in case the slope is shallow and the bow of the boat is still in the water) drives down and attaches the winch cable. Then it retreats back up to firm ground, and hauls on the winch to pull the boat bodily up the beach away from the water. Ideally they get it far enough up that there's room to bring the carriage and tractor around behind the boat, so they pick it up stern-first and it's thus ready to launch again, bows first off the carriage. If necessary, they have a manually operated turntable to point the boat in a more suitable direction for picking up, but it looks pretty labour-intensive. BajanSailor mentions a turntable on the carriage but I've never come across one of those.

I guess there is a window while all this goes on during which the boat can't be instantly launched - but on the other hand you can cut out the time it takes to call in the crew so perhaps the difference isn't all that great? How often are all-weather boats called out on back-to-back shouts anyway?

The Shannon has a far more high-tech launch and recovery system which is all hydraulic, and instead of dragging the boat around and picking it up from behind, it scoops up the boat bows first more or less from wherever it landed and then turns it round on the carriage.

There's some good videos of all this stuff on Youtube.

Pete

 

[DTIM]

These carriage based boats are used where beach/coast conditions do not allow for slipway launch or for the boat to lie afloat. They are not simply beached to await the tide to go out before recovery and I'm sure if a re launch was needed then a turn round time of say 20 minutes could be achieved.