Info on old RNLI Avon s650 needed..

[Mattywooo]

Hi All,

Im after some help on finding some info on a ex RNLI Avon s650 5m SIB. There's no info on these anywhere as far as i can find.

I have found one for sale and im interested but need to know more info.

It looks old so i need to know if there easy to restore. It has a few patches that i can re-patch and re-strake but this is ok.

Where can i find some detailed info on these SIBS?

Thanks in advance.

Matt.

[m chappelow]

Not too sure if they were ever used by the RNLi ,
as far as i know they dident use them as inshore lifeboats ,Though think they may have had one for use as a safety cover boat for the diver when they used to use a crane in the dock for turning over the Atlantic 21 boats for capsize drills many years ago .

[Mattywooo]

Thanks for that Mr Chappelow,

Is there any general site on the web that you know of that has the specs for these boats ?

[markg]

if its the one on ebay it doesnt look ex rnli to me, if you are thinking of buying it just make sure it has the ally stringers to join the floorboards together, i have one and ended up making a new single piece main board for it, they are fairly long for a sib and will flex a bit if the floor or tubes are not stiff enough

[Mattywooo]

Thanks Markg,

What sort of age does the one on ebay look to you ?

How long do they last before they become a right off and not worth repairing ?

Thanks.

[chris123]

As Mart and Mark have said, I am a bit dubious about it being ex-RNLI. As Mart says, if it is ex-RNLI it may have been used as some form of safety cover, but not as a lifeboat - looks like a standard Avon S650.

Attached is a page from the brochure for the S650 (dated 1975).

Avons generally last very well, however the one on Ebay looks to be a bit of a mess - I wouldn't take it on unless you fancy a project. Some of the patches look pretty tatty and will probably need to be redone and the floorboards do not look original (not necessarily a problem provided they are a good match for the originals).

Cheers

Chris

[Mattywooo]

Thanks Chris,

Ya looks a bit tatty. The pics are not very clear to see the state of it.

Thanks for the advice and the leaflet page.

Cheers.