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tangomoon

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It costs about a £1000 to launch a lifeboat - ok.

Local lifeboat and one down the coast (maroons, pager etc.) have been called out to recover roll of carpet, three separate occasions for empty dinghies floating around unattended, five times for yachts on walkabout, six or more to 'ran out of diesel/petrol. etc. etc.

My drift is that some fundraising groups are seeing all the money they raise in one year disappear on shouts for recovery of property when there is no life at risk.

Surely some of the yottie's friends, those friendly, welcoming chappies that snarl at us and leer happily at the females as they miss broadsiding our vessels could be asked to do the towing and collecting, suitably rewarded of course. Not with sex though - I mean gosh! they may want us boys! Might suit you guys but I'm strictly het!

Seriously though opinions welcomed as the boys in Musto may be taking note. Either that or stick some of the high denomination crinkly stuff in the coffers.
 
Unsure but seems rasonable.

Try one boat £2.5 million, full time coxswain, full time mechanic, six volunteer crew for that shout, another 10 spare incluidng relief coxswains and mechanics, boarding boat/\ 4/5 shore crew with 4/5 spare, telephone, pagers, coax system, lifeboat shed, maintenance, diesel, foul weather gear, flares, boots, lifejackets, training at Poole £?? million testing pool for full size boats, £?? million College for accommodation for crew on training, administration at Poole and district offices, travel expenses for necessary staff, full timers and volunteers on training, moorings and their maintenance.

There's more but £1000 is beginning to sound cheap. Don't you think?
 
Think you are confusing fixed costs with variable costs.

If that boat didn't launch most of the costs you have mentioned would still need to be paid.

So, how much to have the boat sitting in its shed doing nothing?
 
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Surely some of the yottie's friends, those friendly, welcoming chappies that snarl at us and leer happily at the females as they miss broadsiding our vessels could be asked to do the towing and collecting, suitably rewarded of course. Not with sex though - I mean gosh! they may want us boys! Might suit you guys but I'm strictly het!

Seriously though opinions welcomed as the boys in Musto may be taking note. Either that or stick some of the high denomination crinkly stuff in the coffers.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, but the fish has fallen out of my ear.
 
Hardly, the only cost you would not have by the boat sitting in the shed is diesel and the miserable £10 or so ten or so volunteers get for going out on the actual shout.

There's no confusion the savings by not going out are minimal. In fact with no shouts that would increase again as more practice nights would be needed. any more you would have to aske the RNLI.

It does however cost about £350K per day to run the RNLI 300 odd stations.

Watever, it must be soul destroying to rush to a shout to find it some clown's dinghy fallen off the back of his boat.

Then there's the employers
 
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Watever, it must be soul destroying to rush to a shout to find it some clown's dinghy fallen off the back of his boat.

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You reckon? They'll launch at the slightest excuse. A chance to play with a 40kt speed boat and you don't have to pay the diesel. Wouldn't you be grateful for any chance to go out? I think the biggest complaints are from the more remote places where shouts are few and far between.
 
But then £40k a year to run an independant on the Solent (GAFIRS I believe on Stokes Bay), 130 callouts a year = £307 quid a shout.

OK, no paid staff or expenses for the crew. Even smaller boats cost loads. New boat being fitted out will be valued at >£300k.

One of the busiest lifeboats in the country. Rather good value don't you think.
 
Marvellous and of course they are capable of handling a rescue in a Force 10 removing a dozen men to safety of their own boat if necessary?
 
Yes, hadn't thought I wouldn't be dealing with responsible adults happy with practice nights.

And the employers? You know, the ones who give them the time off to go and perform this service. Are they happy to have their business interrupted by staff who are being asked to recover rolls of carpet, stray dinghies, loose yachts etc.
 
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Hardly, the only cost you would not have by the boat sitting in the shed is diesel and the miserable £10 or so ten or so volunteers get for going out on the actual shout.


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Exactly. So it does not cost £1000 to launch a lifeboat.
 
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And the employers? You know, the ones who give them the time off to go and perform this service. Are they happy to have their business interrupted by staff who are being asked to recover rolls of carpet, stray dinghies, loose yachts etc.

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Yeah, the employers do get shafted. In fact perhaps they are the real heroes. Manning a lifeboat is so rewarding you don't even need to be paid to do it. Losing staff at random times and seeing no reward AFAIK is a pretty big sacrifice.

Mind you it used to be the boats were manned by professional seamen so I guess you took time off your fishing to save another fisherman and when you were in trouble other fishermen took the LB out to rescue you. Nowadays there are too few professional seamen to run lifeboats. (Which, is a bit of a worry. I'd rather have a guy who has built up boat handling skill fishing 24/7 rescuing me than someone who works in a call centre.)
 
On the number of shouts per year divided into the costs - yes it does.

Applying you're logic if we all move out it won't cost anything to live at home because there won't be power costs.

If you don't understand please accept that you are a simple soul and very underordnanced or trying to apply a child's logic and there is no more to say.
 
In the good old days doesn't do much really.

Youngsters can be taught to be a coxswain in a couple of months or so.

Oh and to navigate - a lot can't and couldn't
 
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On the number of shouts per year divided into the costs - yes it does.

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Applying your logic, if one year there was say one callout, the RNLI would cost us a mere £1,000. If there next year there were 1,000,000 callouts then the total bill would be a £1,000,000,000. Great logic, but sadly not true.

What you are measuring may be mildly interesting to a FD but you are really measuring the total cost of running the service, not the true variable cost of launching a boat. You could equally look at amortising fixed costs agains total hours run, or total man hours used, or against the number of lifeboats - a whole host of measures.


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Applying you're logic if we all move out it won't cost anything to live at home because there won't be power costs..

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?

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If you don't understand please accept that you are a simple soul and very underordnanced or trying to apply a child's logic and there is no more to say.

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Please keep abuse out of here - too many good sources of knowledge and experience have left because of this already. It only indicates a lack of knowledge and a lack of being on top of your arguments.
 
Then of course, there is cost benefit analysis. What is it worth to save a life?

I am not sure of the up to date figures, but on the roads, an investment of £850,000 was the figure put on safety improvements, while on the railways it became £2.5 million for a time. If one life could be saved, it then justified that investment figure.

1 Life equalled 10 serious accidents, and 1 serious accident equalled 10 minor injuries. Thus, to prevent the loss of one life or to prevent 100 minor injuries, it was worth spending £850,000 on road safety improvements for example.

By equal measure therefore, if a lifeboat saved one life or prevented 100 minor injuries in a year, it would be justified in launching 850 times a year.

Based upon that scenario, the RNLI is blindingly good value for money isn't it.

We all know they love to launch on a sunny afternoon. They also need to practice, so these launches to save a roll of carpet, and to recover an empty dinghy still have a value. And until they have investigated the empty dinghy, who knows that someone isn't really in trouble? But at the end of the day, these are the same guys (and girls) who will launch on a filthy winters night into the teeth of a gale, because you or I are in trouble.

Cheap at twice the price if you ask me.
 
It is not abuse, it is fair comment.

I am sure everybody is well aware there are many different ways to reach the same conclusion

You're logic is flawed, the cost of each launch is calculated by the cost of having the whole service at the ready.

You weren't in the mortgage remortgage market until recently
anyway on to
 
You are advocating a nanny state.

You seem to think I am knocking the RNLI - that is not the case.

Employers are reconsidering allowing employees to leave work to go on the lifeboat because they discover their men have left work and disrupted their business to pick up empty dinghies etc.etc.
 
Who is advocating a nanny state? I believe I am simply stating facts. Were I to add my opinion to the cost benefit analysis item, I would question that the values of individual lives are not the same, and that there are circumstances where charges should be levied by the RNLI to recompense losses.

I certainly do not suggest you are knocking the RNLI either.

Equally, I fully understand the employers losses, too. I would suggest that these costs should rightly be funded by central government, even if only partially so, and that the budget for them be taken from fines to MPs caught with their hands in the till, or other government officers caught blatantly wasting taxpayers funds.

The point I was trying to make, is that compared with Government run organisations, The RNLI is incredibly more efficient in terms of cost to results.
 
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