Understand
Port St Mary to lose all-weather lifeboat as Douglas receives new coastal vessel
Overview
The RNLI has confirmed that Port St Mary's all-weather lifeboat will be retired in 2028 and not replaced, leaving the station with only a D-class inshore lifeboat. Meanwhile, Douglas will receive a new coastal lifeboat. The changes are part of an RNLI strategy responding to changing rescue patterns, with the vast majority of callouts occurring close to shore.
Key points
- Port St Mary's all-weather Trent lifeboat will be retired by the end of 2028 and will not be replaced.
- The station will rely on a D-class inshore lifeboat backed by Shannon class lifeboats from Peel and Ramsey.
- Douglas will receive one of the RNLI's new coastal lifeboats entering service from 2028.
- The RNLI stated that 98% of its lifeboat callouts between 2017 and 2024 occurred within 10 nautical miles of the shore.
- There are no plans for redundancies at Port St Mary, and volunteers will continue to run the D-class lifeboat.