End of service lifeboats

When lifeboats and items of equipment come to the end of their working lives with the RNLI they are made available for sale. The RNLI allows its all-weather lifeboats a working life of approximately 25 years and they are offered to other lifesaving societies first, before they are available to the public.

The RNLI has sold ex-Arun class lifeboats to the China Rescue and Salvage Bureau. RNLI assessors flew out to Hong Kong and took the lifeboats on passage to Shanghai with Chinese crews. RNLI instructors also trained five Chinese crew members on the Aruns and accompanied them back to China to see the boats in. The organisation hopes to buy more lifeboats from the RNLI in the near future.