Exmouth’s inshore lifeboat the Margaret Jean is to be rededicated during the official opening of the new boat house, on September 4
Exmouth’s all-weather RNLI lifeboat will next week be rededicated during the station’s formal opening ceremony.
The ceremony for the Mersey class lifeboat, Margaret Jean, will take place at the new lifeboat station, near Maer Rocks, at 2pm on Saturday September 4.
Kevin Riley, Exmouth’s RNLI lifeboat operations manager said he was ‘pleased’ the boat would finally be honoured.
Mr Riley said: “‘At the time she was quietly welcomed to Exmouth we were in the middle building the new lifeboat station so there was no prospect of celebrating formally. The opening ceremony is a perfect opportunity.”
The service of rededication of the Mersey class lifeboat will be conducted by the lifeboat chaplain Reverend Stephen Hoyle.
During the ceremony the Honorable Charles Trefusis will act on behalf of the donors to hand over the new lifeboat station to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Captain Hugh Fogarty, head of RNLI fleet operations RNLI will formally accept the new lifeboat station while Kevin Riley MBE, Exmouth lifeboat operations manager will officially receive the boathouse on behalf of the lifeboat station.
Among the dignitaries will be Nigel Jones, deputy divisional inspector of lifeboats, who will give the vote of thanks and Paul Boissier, RNLI chief executive, who will cut the ribbon.
After the service the Margaret Jean and inshore lifeboat George Berman will launch on exercise.
The Margaret Jean, was originally named during a low-key ceremony at the boatyard in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the RNLI has revealed.
She was built as a relief lifeboat by FBM Marine of Cowes in 1991, and stood in for numerous lifeboats around the UK while they went in for refits or repairs.
The vessel arrived in Exmouth on April 23 2008, lying afloat on moorings in the Exe estuary.
On November 20 2009 the new lifeboat station officially became the latest RNLI carriage-launch facility, enabling the Mersey class lifeboat to be launched at any state of the tide.
In 2009, Exmouth lifeboat station was the third busiest in the south west with 95 shouts
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