Portaferry Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Carriage |
| Address | The Strand, Portaferry, County Down BT22 1PF |
| Telephone | 02842 728710 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Portaferry Lifeboat Station guards Strangford Lough, the largest sea inlet in the British Isles, from the southern tip of the Ards Peninsula in County Down. Established in 1980 after concern about the time it took other lifeboats to reach the lough, it covers a vast area of fast tides and shifting channels. The station operates the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat Blue Peter V, one of the last lifeboats funded by the BBC children’s programme.
Strangford Lough covers some 150 square kilometres, and in the 1970s lifeboats based at Newcastle and Cloughey could take hours to reach an incident there. After lobbying by Portaferry Sailing Club and local boatmen, and an inquiry by the Inspector of Lifeboats for Ireland, a D-class lifeboat was trialled in 1979, and on 1 May 1980 a larger twin-engined boat was placed on extended trials, establishing the station. A new lifeboat house, funded by the local community and the Mountbatten Ulster Appeal, was opened in 1987 alongside an Atlantic 21 named Blue Peter V.
Successive Blue Peter-funded boats followed, the name being retained each time, through an Atlantic 75 in 1994 to the current Atlantic 85, Blue Peter V (B-833), placed on service in 2009 and named by a Blue Peter presenter at a ceremony in 2010. She is one of the last two Blue Peter lifeboats still in RNLI service.
