Belinda and James from London are both big fans of the RNLI. Recently retired they decided to put their new found freedom to good use to support the RNLI in its 200th year.
They are raising funds for a relief D Class Lifeboat by driving clockwise around the whole of the British Isles and Ireland visiting all 238 RNLI lifeboat stations in 911 hours in their Porsche 911 car named Splash.
Belina, James and Splash arrived at Portpatrick at 11.05am on Saturday 24 August 2024 where they were welcomed by crew, fundraisers and shop staff from both Portpatrick and Stranraer Lifeboat stations, before making their way to Stranraer Lifeboat station escorted on their way by the crew from Stranraer and their D class lifeboat Sheila MacDonald.
Belinda said, ‘The welcome at Portpatrick was as warm as the August sunshine that greeted us. Thank you to everyone for taking the time to meet us we loved it! Our RNLI 911 – Challenge is to raise funds for a relief D Class Lifeboat. The D Class lifeboats are involved in more than 60% of all RNLI rescues and in the words of Damien Bolton – helm at Port Isaac Lifeboat ‘the D Class is the workhorse and pocket rocket of the RNLI fleet’, so to have the Stranraer D Class there and to have it escort us onto their station was a masterstroke.’
So far the RNLI 911 Challenge has raised over £83000 you can support them by donating via their website rnli-911challenge.co.uk or to make a donation to the RNLI visit RNLI.org/support-us/give-money/donate
