Alderney Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | Braye Harbour, Alderney, Channel Islands, GY9 3XX |
| Telephone | 01481 823456 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
From Braye Harbour on the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands, Alderney runs a single Trent-class all-weather lifeboat moored afloat, covering some of the most dangerous tidal waters in the British Isles — the Race of Alderney, the Swinge and the rock-strewn approaches to the Casquets. A lifeboat first served the island in 1869; after a long gap the station was re-established in 1984.
A lifeboat was first stationed on Alderney, at St Anne, by the RNLI in 1869. The island’s small population made it hard to keep a crew, and the station was closed in 1884 — the difficulty in finding a crew here was one reason the RNLI took over the St Helier station on Jersey that same year.
For a century Alderney had no lifeboat of its own, its dangerous waters covered from Guernsey and the French coast. The station was finally re-established at Braye Harbour in 1984, after a hundred-year absence, to provide cover closer to the island’s notorious tide-races.
Alderney’s waters are among the most demanding the RNLI works: the Race of Alderney and the Swinge run at great speed on the tide, and the Casquets reef to the west has wrecked countless ships. An all-weather boat is essential here, and the station has a particular link with the Trent class — the prototype Trent was placed at Alderney for evaluation in 1994 before the station received its own. The current lifeboat, the Trent Inner Wheel II, arrived in 2024, working alongside Channel Islands Air Search and the French rescue services to cover the shipping lanes and the leisure traffic of the bailiwick.
