Volunteers at Teignmouth Royal National Lifeboat Institute took delivery of their new lifeboat today (Wednesday November 13).

The Claude and Kath replaces The Two Annes, which had been stationed at Teignmouth for 18 years.

The B-Class Atlantic 85 has a top speed of 35 knots making the 8.5m rigid inflatable lifeboat (RIB) one of the fastest in the RNLI fleet. It is designed to operate in shallow water and is ideal for rescues close to shore or near cliffs and rocks. These are areas that the larger, all-weather lifeboats cannot reach. However, B-Class lifeboats can also handle challenging open sea conditions and are able to operate in force 8 near gale winds in daylight and force 6 at night.

The Claude and Kath has been primarily funded from the legacy of Miss Jean Stevenson who lived in Chesterfield and died in December 2019. Jean was a long-term supporter of the RNLI and her father, Claude, raised funds for the RNLI and organised the local Lifeboat Day.

Jean remembered the RNLI with a generous gift in her will with requests to fund a lifeboat. Jean had expressed a wish to remember her parents, Claude and Kath, and to honour all their volunteering and fundraising for the RNLI by incorporating their names on a lifeboat.

Additional funding was also provided by the legacy of Joan Eileen Kenney, who lived in Dorset, in memory of her late husband, John Kenney.

‘Everyone at Teignmouth RNLI is thrilled to welcome the new boat to the station and we are honoured that the benefactors were so generous in their legacies, enabling us to continue saving lives at sea,’ said Teignmouth RNLI lifeboat operations manager Charlie Woolnough.

The current Atlantic 85 generation of B class lifeboats are named after Atlantic College in Wales where these rigid inflatable lifeboats (RIBs) were first developed.

There have been three generations of B-class lifeboat. The first one being the Atlantic 21, which was the first RIB to join the RNLI fleet, serving from 1972 until 2008. The Atlantic 21 was then replaced by the Atlantic 75, which was in service from 1993 until 2022. These have now been replaced by the Atlantic 85, which were introduced to the fleet in 2005.

Teignmouth Lifeboat Station was one of the first to receive delivery of the Atlantic 85 back in August 2006, when The Two Annes arrived.

Last weekend, supporters of Teignmouth RNLI flocked to the lifeboat station to say goodbye to The Two Annes. ‘It was a fantastic occasion, with many supporters stopping by to say a fond farewell, including past and present RNLI volunteers,’ said a Teignmouth RNLI spokesperson.

Over her 18 years of service The Two Annes lifeboat was launched on service 1,227 times and assisted 823 people with 22 lives saved. Memorable moments include: battling challenging sea conditions on a number of occasions to rescue an unconscious person from the sea; rescuing the crew of a fishing boat that capsized as it navigated the Teignmouth Bar on its way back to port; and safely bringing in an out-of-control motorboat in Teignmouth harbour.