Falmouth lifeboat Station

The station is open for most of the year, when visitors are welcome to take tours around the boats.

As a designated ‘Explore Station’ it is open to the public from April to October, check out the opening times here and pop into the shop attached to the lifeboat station to start your tour. They’re all run by volunteers like Adrien who all have some sort of connection with the RNLI and lifeboats.

The large all-weather boat in Falmouth Lifeboat Station is called RNLB Richard Cox Scott

It’s a 17-29. The 17 means that it is a 17m long Severn boat (all RNLI lifeboat types are named after rivers in the UK). The 29 means that it was the 29th of that type to be built.

The boat is 18 years old

But you wouldn’t think it – the coxswain keeps it in prime condition and, as with all RNLI lifeboats, it goes up to Poole for regular servicing.

They never switch the lifeboat off

Because emergencies can happen in an instant the boat needs to be ready to launch at a moments notice. It’s constantly connected to the land by an electrical wire which keeps everything running.

They cannot launch the 17-29 Lifeboat with less than 5 crew members

The maximum crew the lifeboat can carry is 7. Each crew member has a specific job role. The Coxswain, Helmsman, Navigator and Engineer have specified seats within the cabin and the rest of the crew are there to go out and perform the rescue.

Falmouth Lifeboat Station has two lifeboats

We’ve already mentioned the all-weather lifeboat, but they also have 7m ILB, which stands for Inshore Lifeboat. This ILB is called Eve Pank.

So far this year Falmouth Lifeboat Station has had 41 launches

13 of these have been all-weather, 27 inshore and 1 boat boarding.

Only the coastguard can ask for a lifeboat to be launched

Both of the lifeboats are highly manoeuvrable and can be launched at any time during the day or night

There are over 220 Lifeboat Stations around the coast of the UK.

So there you have our top ten facts about Falmouth Lifeboat Station. It's well worth a visit to find out a little bit more about the men and women who keep our coastline safe.