The Brede-class lifeboat was operated by the

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

(RNLI) from its stations around the coasts of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

between 1982 and 2002, at which time it was the fastest all-weather

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

in its fleet. Eleven were put into service and when replaced by larger boats seven were sold for further use as lifeboats, mainly in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The class took its name from the

River Brede The River Brede is an English river in East Sussex. It flows into the Rock Channel (tidal section of the River Tillingham) and then onto the River Rother at Rye, Sussex. It takes its name from the village of Brede, which lies between Hastings ...

which joins the River Rother to flow into the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

Rye, Sussex is a small town and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England, two miles from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede. An important member of the mediaeval Cinque Ports confederati ...

History

During the 1960s and 1970s the RNLI had placed a number of fast lifeboats into service. These had mostly been

Waveney-class lifeboat The Waveney-class lifeboat was the first class of lifeboats operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) capable of operating at speeds in excess of . Based on an American design, 22 saw operational service between 1964 and 1999 ...

s but there was a need for smaller, more manoeuvrable boats that were larger than the inshore lifeboats. A large boat was built using the construction methods of the Atlantic 21 but this Medina-class lifeboat was never adopted. A prototype Brede was constructed in 1981 and the following year the first two production Brede-class were built. These had a larger wheelhouse than the prototype and placed in service at and lifeboat stations in October. Ten more production boats followed but production ceased in 1985. The first Brede to be withdrawn was RNLB ''Ann Richie'' (ON 1080) which only saw five years service. By the end of 1994 the fleet had been reduced to just five boats; three in the relief fleet and those stationed at and . The boats had been too small to operate in extreme weather and surveys highlighted potential problems with structural strength. Most of the fleet found new use with other rescue services. One was transported to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1993, and six were sold between 1994 and 2002 for use in South Africa. The NSRI in South Africa announced in September 2016 that they were embarking on a project to replace their ageing Brede lifeboat fleet, starting with Eikos Rescuer II (RNLI 1104) based in Durban, with further replacements planned for every two years. The Brede lifeboats will be sold out of the fleet as they are replaced.

Description

The Brede was built with a glass reinforced plastic (GRP) hull, a strengthened version of a commercial design by Lochin Marine of

. It was fitted with twin 203 hp

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s which gave it a top speed of which was faster than any other all-weather lifeboat in the fleet until the introduction of the and classes in 1991. It had an operating range of . The hull was divided into five watertight compartments and spaces were filled with buoyant materials which combined with a watertight GRP wheelhouse to give it a self-righting capability. A survivors' cabin was sited forward of the wheelhouse with eight seats and a stretcher could be carried in the wheelhouse which had seats for the four crew members.

RNLI fleet

All built by Lochin Marine, Rye

Other fleets

New Zealand

South Africa

Second-hand Bredes operated by the National Sea Rescue Institute in South Africa. As from 2019, the NSRI has embarked on a project to replace the ageing Brede fleet with a new class of lifeboat.

References

External links

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution

National Sea Rescue Institute of South Africa
{{RNLI lifeboat classes Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats