A WELL-KNOWN Aberystwyth lifeboat has returned to the town following an extensive refit.

The Atlantic Class lifeboat B-822 Spirit of Friendship left Aberystwyth in January and was taken to the Inshore Lifeboat Centre in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, where the refit took place.

The relief lifeboat B-870 John and Louisa Fisher was left in Aberystwyth to ensure continued search-and-rescue coverage.

It will now return to the relief fleet to be used when needed.

Aberystwyth RNLI welcomed Spirit back on 16 April.

This is the first major refit of the lifeboat and is done on a service based need to save costs on unnecessary refits. After an assessment the boat is stripped back to the hull, and checked for damage, the boat is then put back together with any modifications, or replacements that had been identified.

Aberystwyth’s boat is well maintained by its team of volunteers and will return pretty much as it left, but with a new console layout for the helm and the crew integrated with the System and Information Management System.

SIMS is used across all the new classes of lifeboats, and runs the plotter, radar, navigation and other tools, allowing crews to be trained on one lifeboat and then be able to use those skills on another class of lifeboat should the need arise.

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now