Lough Swilly RNLI to receive first Shannon class lifeboat in Ireland

The first Shannon class lifeboat for Ireland is under construction at Lymington in the UK for the Lough Swilly Lifeboat Station. The €2.4m 13m long, 18 ton vessel, is the first class of lifeboat to be named after the Irish river, and is expected at the Donegal station next April, replacing the station’s all-weather Tyne class lifeboat Robert & Violet.

Shannon class lifeboat. Photo RNLI

The Shannon is the latest class of all-weather lifeboat to join the RNLI fleet and the first to be propelled by waterjets instead of traditional propellers, making it extremely agile and manoeuvrable.

Waterjets allow the vessel to operate in shallow waters and to be intentionally beached. Its unique hull is designed to minimise slamming in heavy seas and has shock-absorbing seats. An improved Systems and Information Management System (SIMS) allows the crew to operate and monitor many of the lifeboat’s functions from the safety of their seats.

“The station acknowledges the great financial support it has received from the community and fundraising volunteers of North East Donegal,” remarked the station’s operations manager, John McCarter. Lough Swilly lifeboats have launched 710 times and saved 47 lives, as well as bringing 517 others safely home since its establishment in 1988.

Of this total, 380 of the launches have been to leisure craft, 262 during the hours of darkness and 70 of them in winds of force 8 or above. McCarter also acknowledged the support of Donegal County Council and Buncrana Town Council for “invaluable infrastructural support throughout that time. This new lifeboat, which has been designed with the lifeboat crew in mind and which will make our response times even faster, will be a major advancement in lifesaving on the North West coast,” he said.