The Brede-class lifeboat was operated by the

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat (rescue), lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on s ...

(RNLI) from its stations around the coasts of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

between 1982 and 2002, at which time it was the fastest all-weather lifeboat in its fleet. Eleven were put into service and when replaced by larger boats, seven were sold for further use as lifeboats, mainly in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The class took its name from the

River Brede The River Brede is an England, English river in East Sussex. It flows into the Rock Channel (tidal section of the River Tillingham) and then onto the River Rother, East Sussex, River Rother at Rye, Sussex. It takes its name from the village of ...

which joins the River Rother to flow into the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

Rye, Sussex is a town and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England, from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede. An important member of the mediaeval Cinque Ports confederation, it was at t ...

History

During the 1960s and 1970s the RNLI had placed a number of fast lifeboats into service. These had mostly been

Waveney-class lifeboat The Waveney-class lifeboat was the first class of lifeboats operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) capable of operating at speeds in excess of . Based on an American design, 22 saw operational service between 1964 and 1999 a ...

s but there was a need for smaller, more manoeuvrable boats that were larger than the inshore lifeboats. A large boat was built using the construction methods of the Atlantic 21 but this Medina-class lifeboat was never adopted. A prototype Brede was constructed in 1981 and the following year the first two production Brede-class were built. These had a larger wheelhouse than the prototype and placed in service at and Oban lifeboat stations in October. Ten more production boats followed but production ceased in 1985. The first Brede to be withdrawn was RNLB ''Ann Richie'' (ON 1080) which only saw five years service. By the end of 1994 the fleet had been reduced to just five boats; three in the relief fleet and those stationed at and . The boats had been too small to operate in extreme weather and surveys highlighted potential problems with structural strength. Most of the fleet found new use with other rescue services. One was transported to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 1993. Six were bought between 1994 and 2002 by the

National Sea Rescue Institute The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) is a voluntary Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation in South Africa tasked with saving lives through drowning prevention. It operates over 50 bases (as of May 2025) comprising coastal stations ...

in South Africa, with a seventh boat purchased privately in 2012 to replace ''Sanlam Rescuer'' (RNLI ON 1102) which was destroyed by fire awaiting refit. In September 2016, the NSRI announced that they were embarking on a project to replace their ageing Brede lifeboat fleet, starting with ''Eikos Rescuer II'' (RNLI ON 1104) based in Durban, with further replacements planned for every two years. The Brede lifeboats will be sold out of the fleet as they are replaced. As of Nov 2023, 3 are still in service.

Description

The Brede was built with a glass reinforced plastic (GRP) hull, a strengthened version of a commercial design by Lochin Marine of

. It was fitted with twin 203 hp

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s which gave it a top speed of which was faster than any other all-weather lifeboat in the fleet until the introduction of the and classes in 1991. It had an operating range of . The hull was divided into five watertight compartments and spaces were filled with buoyant materials which combined with a watertight GRP wheelhouse to give it a self-righting capability. A survivors' cabin was sited forward of the wheelhouse with eight seats and a stretcher could be carried in the wheelhouse which had seats for the four crew members.

RNLI fleet

All built by Lochin Marine, Rye

Other fleets

New Zealand

Operated by New Zealand Coast Rescue, Nelson

South Africa

Former RNLI Brede-Class lifeboats operated by the National Sea Rescue Institute in South Africa. As from 2019, the NSRI has embarked on a project to replace the ageing Brede fleet with a new class of lifeboat.

References

External links

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution

National Sea Rescue Institute of South Africa
{{RNLI lifeboat classes Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats