Bembridge Lifeboat Station
Bembridge Lifeboat Station, on the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight, guards the eastern approaches to the Solent south of Spithead, one of the busiest shipping lanes in British waters. Its all-weather lifeboat is housed in a boathouse on piles out in the sea, reached by a long pier from the shore.
History
The RNLI first placed a lifeboat at Bembridge in 1867, and in 1922 the station received one of the first motor lifeboats on this coast. Over the years its crews have won many awards for rescues on the ledges and sandbanks off the island’s east coast. The present boathouse and slipway were built for a new generation of fast lifeboats, and since 2010 the station has operated a Tamar-class all-weather lifeboat, Alfred Albert Williams, alongside a D-class inshore lifeboat kept in a boathouse on the shore.
Visiting
The station is at Lane End, where a pier walkway leads out to the boathouse, which has a viewing gallery and shop open to visitors in season. Bembridge harbour, the windmill and the coast path are nearby.
About island lifeboat stations
All lifeboat stations →On islands, the lifeboat is often the only help that can reach someone in trouble at sea, and island lifeboat crews cover some of the most exposed waters around Britain and Ireland. Here you will find the lifeboat stations on the islands we cover, with their history and the boats they launch.
