The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is one of those great Victorian foundations, the merits of which are as starkly obvious today as they when it was founded. Now a massive national charity, the RNLI today protects seafarers and beach users of all the beaches and waters around the UK, and also those of the Republic of Ireland. It does this through 238 lifeboat stations and 242 lifeguard units. The former deploy a fleet of 432 rescue craft, which they launch about 10,000 times each year, while the latter goes to the aid of some 20,000 people on and around the beaches annually. These services are provided by nearly 10,000 lifeboat volunteers and about 2,500 paid staff, including lifeguards.

The RNLI HQ is down in Poole Harbour, where it also recently built a unique and rather smart training college (with extremely comfortable, boat-themed, ensuite bedrooms), which has some rather unusual training facilities. Next door it has constructed an equally specialist factory, in which it builds its iconic and extremely capable lifeboats. For obvious reasons, the public have access to scarcely any of the site, which is entirely focussed on the RNLI volunteers and employees, who go there for its myriad of specialist training courses. However, the Master has persuaded the Principal to allow a party from our Company to stay at the College during the last weekend in June, to see what they do there, how a busy lifeboat station operates, and how the lifeboats are built and maintained.

The Royal Marines are one of our nation’s two premier light infantry units, and with their amphibious focus, they have bases in various coastal locations around the UK. By chance, one such base is in Poole, located just across the harbour from the RNLI College. We have long affiliated to the key unit on that Camp and as we will be in town, the CO has kindly invited us over for a private supper, briefing and kit demonstration, when we arrive on the Friday evening.

Full details of the weekend will be issued nearer the time, but the broad timetable is as follows:

Friday

4 – 6.30pm         Check in at RNLI College and settle into our rooms (A deliberately wide arrival window, to allow for Friday evening traffic etc!)

6.30pm               Private coach to RM Poole Camp for evening of briefings, demos and buffet supper; then coach back to RNLI after

Saturday

8 – 9.30am          Breakfast in the College Dining Hall

10am – 12pm      Half the party is given a private tour of the College (Tips: Don’t get swept into the pool, and try not to crash the lifeboat.)

The other half visits Poole Harbour, the Lifeboat Museum and the Lifeboat Station, for a briefing and walk thru the in-shore lifeboats

1 – 2pm                 Lunch in the College Dining Hall

2.30 – 4.30pm    Both groups swap round

6pm                      Black tie drinks reception, up in the Panoramic Banqueting Suite on the top floor of the College

6.30 – 10pm        Four-course Dinner with guest speaker (The Master’s still haggling with the possibles over who it will be!)

Sunday

8 – 9.30am           Breakfast in the College Dining Hall

10am – 12pm       Party divides into groups for guided tour of the RNLI factory, where they make their ocean going lifeboats

12.30 – 2pm         Optional lunch in the College Dining Hall, for those who wish to eat before leaving

There are deliberately gaps built into the schedule, so Members and their guests will have time to relax and perhaps explore Poole. (BTW: there is rather a nice souvenir shop in the College, which is worth a visit. They sell some truly amazing wellies!)

Apart from the black tie dinner on the Saturday evening, and the visit to RM Poole, (where we will show respect for our hosts by wearing jacket and tie etc), dress for the weekend is entirely casual, with jeans and training shoes being fine. The College, its lifeboat station and its factory are all working sites, with a tinge of the industrial about them, and so personal comfort and sure-footed safety are paramount.

The whole weekend costs £560 for a person booking an ensuite bedroom to themselves at the College, and £880 for a couple sharing a room (ie £440 each).

These sums cover everything except the lunch on the Saturday and the optional one on the Sunday (ie RM Poole visit and supper, two nights’ bed & breakfast in College, College tour, lifeboat station and museum visits, and Saturday’s black tie Dinner). We will pay for our lunches ourselves, because the menu in the College Dining Room is simply too varied and Members will doubtless wish to make their own choices. (The food prices are reasonable.)

Poole Railway Station is about 700 yards’ walk from the College, and for those who wish to drive, free parking has been arranged on site.

The College can accommodate up to 50 Members and guests that particular weekend, so bookings will have to be allocated on a “First-Come-First-Served” basis.