Old English Lifeboat in Tasmania?

[AndieMac]

On the local slipway today I saw what was descibed as an English Lifeboat (sorry don't know how to put photos on post)

Length: 48 feet
Beam: 14 feet
Draught: 5 feet

All steel construction, double ended, twin 6 cylinder Gardiners, with props all fully protected above the keel.
The hull steel plates had exposed welds all round with bilge rolling chocks and the cabin structure had tiny portholes.

If asked for a quick description, an immediate response could be a 'Sherman Tank' of the sea. Someone said they were launched off a large ramp into the sea!

Looks to be one serious kind of sea boat. Any old salts know much about these 'old girls'. The colours on this one are orange, cabin/superstructure and dark blue topsides. Unusal exhaust system, midships both sides just below the water line with a one way valve.

Seriously old school, anyone know?

 

[Bajansailor]

It sounds like it is one of the old RNLI Solent class of lifeboats, designed I think by G L Watson.

In fact, after doing a bit of googling, this has to be the boat you saw :
http://www.nelsonsboats.co.uk/boatdescription.html?BoatID=158
They say she was designed by C & N, but I am pretty sure that all of the older traditional lifeboats in more recent years were G L Watson.
And she has a pair of Gardner 6LX engines..... enough said.

 

[AndieMac]

Thanks for that info, the sixth photo caption on the top row from the left is the actual boat "Sea Guardian".
It appears to be from the Nelson website. I hear very good reports about the Nelson boats, they obviously get their heritage from G L Watson?

What happens to the other old lifeboats, does anyone do a conversion?

 

[AndieMac]

Bajansailor

forget that last question, I went back for a closer look at the website and found a whole page of old lifeboats for sale /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

thanks anyway.

 

[Nautical]

Spot on ! great website btw hadn't seen it before.

Pssst, don't tell anyone on here but I used to own this one Ex Longhope Solent class

Great to see she is still around, lots of fond memories of her although she was a mountain of work to keep up to RNLI standards, must have used a tin of Brasso a month just in the engine room !.

 

[AndieMac]

Did you do much in the way of a conversion, or leave it pretty much original?

There would probably be a far bit of work to convert to cruiser, but what a boat you would have.

It would certainly make true the saying, 'your boat can stand a lot more than you can'.

 

[Nautical]

No I didn't change a thing on her.

We bought her straight out of service in the hope that the upkeep would be less than trying to bring an older one back up to condition. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

These boats take a huge amount of effort to keep them ship shape. The RNLI don't really have a problem here because they have volunteers or as is the case now a full time mechanic to spend hours and hours every month keeping them up to condition. The engine room was a delight to look at, brass and copper everywhere almost a work of art but boy does it take some effort to keep it that way.

They are certainly massively engineered but due to their configuration make poor conversions unless you are prepared to rip out bulkheads, air tanks, ballast tanks etc to get some internal volume by which time you have lost the essence of the vessel and what she was designed for.

It breaks my heart to see so many of the older wooden Watson's lying around just rotting because people can't give them the time to keep them in condition, if you do you need either deep pockets or huge amounts of time on your hands.

As for the Solent's sea keeping etc, its was good for its day but no where near the ability of the newer fleet. She certainly could take a bashing but you needed to be pretty proficient and know her inside out in the really heavy stuff. Down the weather she was a bit of a pig and beam on she rolled horrendously. Berthing was an art in itself, the props where in tunnels and the rudders too small so getting her close to in rolling seas took handfuls of throttle and lots of wheel twirling.

Having said that her towing ability was monstrous, those Gardner 6LXB's may have only been 120 bhp each but they had huge torque turning big props, you could tow a small coaster in poor conditions and she would plug along for hours on end without a bother.

Great character vessels but designed for a very specific purpose and don't make great conversions, I fell in love with the idea of owning one but the reality was a bit of an eye opener, still had great memories and a lot of fun just wouldn't want to do it again !.

 

[AndieMac]

Thanks for that, I guess those big round bilges would roll on a wet lawn. This one had short bilge keels, maybe a retro fit.

The old Gardiners often had their horsepower referred to to as 'draught horse' power.

Our Ports authority have a breed of SD pilot boat called a Halmatic, about 42 feet and quite narrow, which have proven to be a great machine. Although about 15 years ago one lost its windows and sank drowning all on board, at the Port Phillip heads (Victoria).

Thanks for the info Nautical.