Lymington Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Carriage |
| Address | Bath Road, Lymington, Hampshire, SO41 3SE |
| Telephone | 01590 675894 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
From the mouth of the Lymington River on the edge of the New Forest, Lymington covers the western Solent and the channel to the Isle of Wight ferries. An inshore station since 1965, it runs a fast Atlantic 85 and works closely with its neighbours at Yarmouth and Calshot across some of the busiest sailing water in Britain, from the saltmarsh of the river mouth out to the strong tides of the Hurst Narrows.
Lymington is an old salt-making and shipbuilding port turned sailing town, its river winding out through saltmarsh to the western Solent opposite Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. The water here is sheltered compared with the open Channel, but it is crowded with yachts, dinghies and the Lymington–Yarmouth ferries, and the tides and shallow channels demand local knowledge.
As leisure boating grew rapidly after the war, the RNLI established an inshore lifeboat station at Lymington in May 1965, with one of the new D-class inflatables. Over the following decades the station operated a succession of inshore boats, graduating to the larger and faster Atlantic class as the range and weight of its work increased.
By its sixtieth anniversary in 2025, Lymington had operated six lifeboats and launched on service more than 1,540 times, saving 235 lives. Today it runs an Atlantic 85, often launching alongside the Yarmouth and Calshot lifeboats to cover the western Solent. The river’s winding, marsh-lined channel and the strong tides through the nearby Hurst Narrows give the crew plenty of demanding water close to home, and the proximity of the Lymington–Yarmouth ferry route keeps the lifeboat busy with small craft caught among heavy traffic.
