Helensburgh Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Launchway |
| Address | Rhu Marina, Rhu, Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, G84 8LH |
| Telephone | 01436 820438 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
At Rhu Marina on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde, at the entrance to the Gare Loch near Helensburgh, the station runs a fast Atlantic 85 over a busy stretch of estuary and loch. The RNLI established the station in 1965.
Following the RNLI’s introduction of fast inshore lifeboats, a station was established at Helensburgh in June 1965. It is actually based two miles north-west of the town, at Rhu Marina, on the north shore of the Clyde at the mouth of the Gare Loch — a busy area of yachting, naval traffic and leisure water.
The station has run a succession of inshore boats — trial twin-engined craft in the 1970s, then Atlantic 21 and 75 lifeboats — before today’s Atlantic 85. Its calls range from the everyday to the unusual: in May 1989 the lifeboat was called to a mechanical digger stranded by the rising tide in the mud off Port Glasgow, its cab and raised shovel all that remained above water, and rescued the man aboard.
Helensburgh now operates the Atlantic 85 Angus and Muriel Mackay from Rhu, working alongside the other Clyde stations.
