Lifeboat factory for Poole

The RNLI’s next generation all-weather lifeboats will be built in-house at a new facility in Dorset.

Subject to approval from the Borough of Poole, a new production line will rise up at Holes Bay, close to the existing RNLI HQ building.

will save £3.7 million each year

Currently, all-weather ‘Shannon’ class lifeboats are built by third party contractors with a pricetag of around £1.5 million each.

The estimated cost of bringing production in-house is £11.2 million, but will then save the charity £3.7 million each year.

The initiative could pay for itself in only ten years, and will also create 90 boatbuilding jobs in Dorset.

Paul Boissier, RNLI Chief Executive said: “We need to make the best use of the donations we receive and so I’ve been leading a continuous improvement programme at the RNLI for the last two years.

“We’ve been successfully producing our own inshore lifeboats at an RNLI facility on the Isle of Wight for decades, and we have no plans to change this.”

But he added: “We’ve made significant efficiency savings, some of which can now be used to allow us to build our own [all-weather] lifeboats – we’d be our own customer and we have a water-tight order book.”

Groundbreaking at the new lifeboat factory site in Poole could begin as early as 2013, with all-weather hull and deck moulding work migrated from Lymington by 2019.