LIFEBOATS shot down the slipway from Swanage's 140-year-old station for the final time.

Hundreds of onlookers packed the waterfront at Peveril Point as they watched lifeboats Robert Charles Brown and Phyl & Jack launched from the soon-to-be demolished building this morning.

Led by operations manager Neil Hardy, the crowd counted down in chorus from 10 as the larger Mersey-class vessel sped into the water.

Mr Hardy told the Echo his family built the station back in 1875 and have been connected with it continuously ever since - but are excited about its planned replacement.

“It means a lot to the crew and people of Swanage but when it comes to bricks and mortar and material things I am not that sentimental,” he said.

 


“We have been working in less than ideal conditions for some time and the new boathouse will bring new facilities we need for the next 50 to 70 years.”

The site, which lacks changing facilities and a mechanical workshop, is set to be dismantled stone-by-stone ahead of a new £3.5million project.

It comes after the RNLI's five yearly review deemed the town needed a faster boat, which would not fit in the current station.

That new boat is the £1.5m 18-tonne Shannon-class lifeboat, which can hit 25-knots and is designed to be easier to manoeuvre with cutting-edge water jet propulsion technology. It is set to arrive in 2016 on completion of the new building.

In the meantime Swanage lifeboat's chairman Peter Foster said the existing lifeboats would be moored nearby and remain fully operational.

“It is going to be difficult for the crews to get out on shouts, but needs must,” he added.

“Swanage will have the only slipway launched Shannon in the country, which is something we are very proud of.”