Ex RNLI Manchester and Salford Lifeboat

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Ex RNLI Manchester and Salford Lifeboat

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Welcome to our Lifeboat Restoration website, we hope you like it! Non profit.

Our objective is to restore a beautiful old lifeboat and put her to good use giving people an experience of sailing a historic lifeboat.

01/11/2026

https://www.facebook.com/100057642483191/posts/1571402751457793/?

31/10/2026

Well today was a lovely day we went to the RNLI barrow station to thank the Cox, crew and shore crew for looking after our friend Apple who had a head injury and was looked after by the RNLI. We will be forever grateful for them looking after our crew member in August this year. We met and thanked the crew, we presented a bronze plaque and a painting and letter to them from us. They looked after us again tea/ coffee and a VIP tour of the station and boat. We will continue to raise money for the RNLI the people are hero’s and don’t see themselves that way but they are and so lovely and strong team…. Thanks from the M&S crew…….we love you guys and Ladies!

26/10/2026

ON 689 the 102 year old ex Watson class sailing lifeboat “ Manchester & Salford” jobs this Saturday.
1. Solving a hydraulic oil leak on the autopilot pump. It turned out to be a simple gasket in the filler pipe. I had gasket material on boat so removed the parts and make a new gasket and it now dry, no leaks and topped up the Tellus 37 hydraulic oil.

2. Final testing of the OPEN CPN connection to the NMEA 2000 network. Unfortunately the gadget is missing the AIS data and a few other parameters so I will send it back and hopefully sort a better one.

3. Finishing the tidy up of the bilge pump wiring and the wiring for the computer that monitors the pumps.

22/10/2026

Restoration of the 102 year old ex RNLI sailing Watson class lifeboat “ Manchester & Salford” ex Douglas Isle of Man jobs yesterday and today:

1. Draining the fuel filter main engine separators to remove and water / condensation from the filters and tank. Some water found in the starboard tank, whilst the port which was much fuller was free of water.
2. Fixing a leaking value of the fuel system.
3. Fitting the inner scuppers to prevent excess water ingress into the cockpit when rolling.
4. Re wiring the temporary bilge pump wiring at the helm which needed a good tidy up for all 10 off electric bilge pumps which involves 12 volt DC, 24 volt DC ( for the engine room) and all the wires for the computer the monitors the bilge pump activity.
5. Testing the WIFI device that connects to Open CPN and the NMEA 2000 backbone to pipe all the CANBUS data from Raymarine instruments and MFD to the boats PC for log monitoring and navigation at the chart table. Still have to test a few more parameters but some of it now appears to work, more to test on Saturday.

Huge thanks to John!

08/10/2026

ON 689 the 102 year old lifeboat “ Manchester & Salford. Jobs today:

Lots of painting in cockpit seats and also lots of wiring.

07/10/2026

ON 689 the 102 year old ex RNLI sailing Watson class lifeboat “Manchester & Salford” jobs for today:

1. Fixing a couple of oil cooler oil leaks on the main engine.
2. Fixing a leak on number 6 cylinder injector return pipe leak. Fitted new rubber seal and copper washers and it’s now dry.
3. Fitting the port side internal scuppers.
4. Painting the cockpit under seat area to freshen them up.
5. Fitting an 8 amp trip to the two main engine bilge blowers which now run perfectly and the engine room now has clean air and a lot more air flow.
6. Rebuilt raw water pump. Fitted and painted.
7. Starting to set up the NMEA2000 to NMEA 183 multiplex so that open CPN can see all of the onboard data in the laptop and enhance navigation at the chart table which has 750 off Admiralty charts ( all digital now). Unfortunately the Quark- elec A032 does work, don’t know if it’s faulty or just doesn’t work so returning it for investigation as it’s brand new.

Big thanks to John.

26/09/2026

ON 689 the 102 year old ex sailing Watson class “ Manchester & Salford” ex Douglas Isle of Man station jobs for today: checking the bilges after a week with on holiday and she seems fine. The big job was fitting the new Jeckells Main Gaff sail and the Mizzen sail and measuring up finally for the new sail covers which we haven’t yet got as we only measured them today. A huge job getting all of the running rigging and ropes for the sails in place. The pictures were taken part way through and unfortunately we didn’t take pictures of the finished job but will post the, again wain the sails are all up and under full sail and with the new covers when we have them. Huge thanks to Pete.

16/09/2026

ON 689 the 102 year old ex sailing Watson class “ Manchester & Salford” jobs never end today spent the entire day building up two entire Jabsco raw water pumps one that I purchased new old stock which is brilliant and the original main engine one was leaking and needed entire rebuild. I made the opportunity of building not just an entire spare pump but one that’s on its own Perkins’s brackets, hose tails and coupling so that changing pumps at seal if one fails isn’t now a full days job it’s a 15 minute job which is achievable even if one fails when we are underway. Will fit the new pump tomorrow and continue the final work on the spare pump when the new mechanical seal and impeller comes but it’s now got all its new bearing seals and a good clean up so a small job to finish

09/09/2026

ON 689 jobs today on the 102 year old ex RNLI Watson class sailing lifeboat:

1. Taking the prop shaft apart from the gearbox to see if we can feel the friction caused by the rope we have around the propellor. It’s tight, very and needs to be freed before we can move the boat.
2. Hard wiring the last of the engine temperature sensors…..completed.
3. Wet vaxing out all compartment to clean us the leak and clean up the bilges.
4. Fitting the lazy jacks which we made ourselves ……very happy.
5. Cable tie up the new cables for the bilge blowers near the fan belts in the engine

07/09/2026

ON689 the 102 year old ex RNLI lifeboat “Manchester & Salford” jobs the last few evenings splicing all of the components that make up the main gaff Lazy- Jacks the 12 mm diameter 3 strand and 8 mm diameter 3 strand English braid rope. I had to learn some new splicing techniques.
1. Eye splices which I have done many times for mooring strops and mooring warps etc.
2. Back splices ( new for me).
3. Modified Hybrid end to end splice ( new for me)

The Jazy-jacks are large with two 12 mm diameter 3 strand rope running from 3/4 of the way up the main mast to 3/4 of the length out onto the main boom. It then has 5 off 8 mm diameter 3 strand ropes dropping vertically in different length.
The purpose is to control the gaff sail while lowering it, to ensure the sail remains tidy and ready to receive the sail cover quickly.

Address

Hesketh Bank
PR46RR

Opening Hours

9am - 5pm

Website

http://ex-rnli-lifeboat-ms.weebly.com/

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