Shannon tracks to the sea
Fundraising in the community has helped pay for the vehicle Scarborough RNLI has taken delivery of its new lifeboat tractor.
Scarborough’ s new life boat tractor arrived on the back of a truck and was taken across the beach, into these a and from the life boat house.
The Shannon launch-and-recovery system, or SLARS, arrived on the back of a truck and was taken across the beach, into the sea and onto the slipway of the new lifeboat house.
A programme of familiarisation and training for the crew is due to take place this week.
A Shannon lifeboat – but not Scarborough’s – will pay a visit during the week for training purposes.
John Senior, lifeboat operations manager, said: “Our Shannon arrival programme starts with a vengeance today with the delivery of our Shannon launch-and-recovery system.
“It is the dawn of a new era for Scarborough lifeboat station. We live in very exciting times in the history of Scarborough RNLI”.
Most of the £1.5m cost of SLARS has been paid for with two legacies. An appeal raised the remaining £200,000.
The Shannon is designed to be mostly launched and recovered from a beach, but can’t do it without the right launching equipment, so it needs a bespoke launch-andrecovery system.
The RNLI has developed a system capable of launching and recovering the Shannon lifeboat from the beach at all states of tide. The Shannon will arrive on November 27.