A special ceremony was held in Barmouth’s boathouse over the weekend to officially accept the crew’s new vessel.

Barmouth RNLI’s newest boat, Ella Larsen, has been officially named and accepted into the station with several dignitaries filling the seaside station on Saturday afternoon.

The new boat is worth £2.2m, a cost which has been privately funded by the Basil Larsen 1999 Charitable Trust.

RNLI area lifesaving manager Lee Firman said: “The naming ceremony gave the community and the crew an opportunity to celebrate this remarkable milestone and the beginning of a new chapter of lifesaving.”

The new Shannon class lifeboat arrived on 10 March, and was officially placed on service on 10 April, after a lengthy training and assessment period.

Now it has completed this process of initiation, and has been officially named and handed over to the station’s care by RNLI operations and safety director George Rawlinson.

The Ella Larsen boat will enable the lifeboat crew to reach calls faster and more efficiently.

Propelled by water jets, the Shannon class boat is regarded as faster and more advanced than the Mersey class, its predecessor Moira Barrie, which has overseen lifesaving in Cardigan Bay since 1992.

Mr Firman added: “These advances will enable us to provide a comprehensive search and rescue service across Cardigan Bay and reach people in trouble quicker than ever before.”

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