The new Tamar class lifeboat arrived in her home port on Monday 3rd July 2006. Spirit of Padstow  entered the harbour at midday, heralding the beginning of a new era in lifesaving at the north Cornwall station.

Spirit of Padstow came down the estuary amidst a flotilla of motor and sail boat, flanked by the current Tyne Class, James Burrough, and the Rock ILB, Rusper. She was welcomed to Padstow by the sound of the maroons being fired, a traditional call for a state of the art lifeboat. The quay sides were bustling with people.

After leaving the harbour she returned to the lifeboat station for slipway trials.

The new lifeboat will not take on an operational role straight away. The first job for the RNLI Coxswain Alan Tarby will be to train his volunteer crew onboard the Tamar. In the meantime, the stations Tyne class lifeboat , James Burrough will continue to serve the treacherous stretch of Atlantic facing coastline that’s covered by the Padstow station.

Alan Tarby says it will mark the end of a concentrated week of training with the new lifeboat at the RNLI’s Lifeboat College in Poole:
‘We have watched the Tamar develop from a bare hull to the top class lifeboat she already is. She’s very different to our current lifeboat and we have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about her. Now I look forward to bringing her home and settling down to training our volunteer crew. Our new boathouse will be ready in the very near future and I know it won’t be long before our entirely new set up is operational.’
‘The future is looking very good for seafarers off the north Cornish coast as the Tamar is faster and will afford us a quicker response time when we receive emergency call outs.
Ours is a demanding coastline and our new lifeboat and facilities will ensure we can maintain and improve our role of saving lives at sea.’

The Tamar boasts improved safety features as well as an increase in speed; a computerised ‘Systems and Information Management System’ (SIMS) allows the crew to control many of the onboard functions without leaving their seats and a new seat design will significantly reduce the impact on crews backs as the lifeboat crashed through heavy seas.

Tamar facts and figures

Length:                      16m
Breadth:                     5m
Draught:                     1.35M
Weight:                       31.5 tonnes
Crew:                          7 (including doctor)
Material:                     Fibre reinforced plastic
Endurance:                10 hours at 25 knots
Speed:                        25 knots
Power:                        2 X 1000HP turbo charged diesels
Propulsion:                2 X fixed pitch 5 bladed propellers
Fuel:                           4,600 LITRES/1,000 gallons
Cost:                           £2.5 million

·         Padstow is a key station in the RNLI’s network of 233 stations around the coastline of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The site at Trevose Head is the only one in the area that allows the RNLI safe access to the sea 24 hours a day. It ensures lifesaving cover along a 38-mile stretch of coastline, and 100 nautical miles out to sea. The nearest all weather lifeboats to Padstow are St Ives which is 28nm to the west, and Appledore which is 48nm to the east.