Welcome

Welcome to the friends of the St Peter Port lifeboat website.

Please visit https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lifeboat-stations/st-peter-port-lifeboat-station for the official website

The Guernsey lifeboat station is one of only four in the Channel Islands. Operating for over 200 years, the crews of the Guernsey lifeboats have been honoured with several awards for gallantry.

Spirit of Guernsey at speed – photo by Tony Rive

The Station has seen a variety of lifeboats over the years and the current lifeboat is the Severn class ‘Spirit of Guernsey’. The Island has always been proud to support the Lifeboat Station and crews; in 1973 a special appeal raised a considerable sum towards the cost of the Arun Class “Sir William Arnold”.

Twenty years later an appeal was launched to raise £1 million to support the building of “Spirit of Guernsey”. Thanks to the generosity of friends in Guernsey, Sark, Herm and further afield, the target was achieved within one year. The RNLI relies entirely on voluntary donations.

Following a six-month training and familiarisation period, July 2019 saw the introduction of a ‘B’ Class Atlantic 85 Inshore Rescue lifeboat – the Elizabeth and Margaret Milligan (B-889) on a two-year trial for evaluation.

Picture by Brian Green

Capsized Dinghy South Coast

Inshore Lifeboat – Library photo

Shortly after 2:15pm on Monday 6th January, 2025, the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre
(JESCC) received a mobile telephone call from the crew of a small dinghy that had capsized south of St Martin’s Point. The dinghy was drifting in difficult wind and tide conditions with 2 people clinging to the upturned hull.

JESCC alerted Guernsey Coastguard and both St Peter Port All Weather Lifeboat and the Inshore Lifeboat were tasked to the scene. Herm Trident VI was also requested to proceed to St Martin’s Point whilst returning from Herm to Guernsey and Channel Islands Air Search was also paged to launch.

Trident VI was the first vessel on scene but was unable to locate the casualty. After a short search of the area by both Trident and the Inshore Lifeboat, the capsized dinghy and its crew were located. Both people were recovered from the water and were returned to St Peter Port by the Inshore Lifeboat. On arrival in St Peter Port, the casualties were checked over by paramedics but were otherwise uninjured.

Search Mission Coordinator James Way said: “This was a successful search and rescue operation in challenging conditions. We would like to thank the master of Trident VI for his support today as well as the volunteer crews of our Lifeboats.”

Lifeboat swap

The Margaret Joan and Fred Nye 17-46 arrived today to cover for the St Peter Port lifeboat.

Our lifeboat is going back to Poole for some essential engine maintenance. The last time Margaret Joan and Fred Nye was in Guernsey was in 2009.

Photo by Tony Rive