64 passagemaker.com July/August 2018
for shelter. With a battered and bruised crew, we holed up in
Scapa Flow to let the storm subside.
I had never seen seas like that and I haven’t seen them since,
even when I was out in a Force 12 hurricane in the Atlantic.
The boat came through with flying colors, though, and the
experiment of lifeboat/cruising boats continued for the next
two decades. The RNLI’s original cruising lifeboat was based
at various stations around the coast until the RNLI decided to
abandon the concept of cruising lifeboats and 70-001 was sold
out of service to the Icelandic Coast Guard for operations even
further north. Later she became a dive boat and was subsequently
sold to a Dutch owner who converted her into an all-weather
cruising yacht.
70-01 TODAY
Imagine my surprise 40 years later when in the Netherlands I
came across 70-001 lying in harbor in Stellendam, still looking
almost identical to that lifeboat I had tested to the limits decades
before. The owner welcomed me on board and we arranged for
a short trip to sea just for old times’ sake.
The vessel had been renamed Dolphin, but apart from the
name board and the fresh gray paint on the superstructure in place
of the high-visibility lifeboat orange, she looked identical to how
I remembered her. The other most significant change I noted was
the brass fire cannon on the foredeck was beautifully polished.
(It had been painted in my day.) In both the pilothouse and the
engine room, polished brass was everywhere and everything
was gleaming: the sure sign of a loving owner. Of course there
were additions made since she retired from service. Electronic
navigation had been installed in the pilothouse, along with modern
monitoring and communications equipment. Two liferafts had
been mounted on top of the pilothouse where previously there
had only been one mounted aft. But otherwise she looked and felt
the same—until I saw the accommodations belowdecks.
Below, the utilitarian workboat interior of old had been re-
paneled with rich mahogany and comfortable-looking beds had
replaced stiff bunks. The compact saloon looked very smart with
all of its polished wood and stainless steel in the galley. All of these
upgrades fit with the role of the boat’s newfound cruising purpose.
These days the owner uses it mainly for charter work, taking out
small groups for voyages of exploration in Scandinavian waters
but also for day trips involving larger groups (hence the need for
a second liferaft). This 50-year-old lifeboat is living a new life as a
cruising yacht, and it is perhaps the ultimate passagemaker.
Though it was a very emotional moment for me when I
heard those Gardner diesels start up, it was even more emotional
to climb up to that flybridge helm station and relive the hours I
spent there facing the roughest seas in the world. QAbove (left): Four decades later, the boat, now named Dolphin, is better than ever. Above (right): The boat’s owner shows off the
beautifully polished brass fire cannon that is mounted on the foredeck. The new owner brought all the original brass back to life.
Dag Pike