We were greeted on arrival by two volunteers John Magowan and John Montgomery who this year are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the RNLI .The station had just received a new inshore lifeboat called the Ruby Robinson replacing the Jessie Hillyard which had been in service for 18 years and had been launched 643 times coming to the aid of 626 people 20 of whom had their lives saved.
Following a PowerPoint presentation about the work of the RNLI and the procedures undertaken when a call is received, our Treasurer Neil Dunbar volunteered to be kitted out in the waterproof suit that the first four crew volunteers have to change into on arrival at the station. This was not an easy task and it is normally undertaken by the crew in less than a minute.
There are thirty crew available in Bangor and as the first four get ready to man the lifeboat the others on arrival will prepare the vessel for sea. This is all undertaken in a space of approx 6 minutes from pager to launch.
We were taken downstairs to see the magnificent new arrival and given the opportunity to climb on board and were talked through all the latest technology.
The RNLI is privately funded and as £175m is needed each year to support the 238 lifeboat stations in the UK we had a collection of £240 by those attending which was matched with club funds donating £480 to this very worthy cause
We walked over to The Nines a nearby restaurant and finished the night with a light supper. A very informative and worthwhile evening was had by all.
