Girvan's lifeboat station stands on Knockcushan Street, at the harbour, and its big orange and blue lifeboat is one of the first things you notice on the quay. The crew are volunteers, people with jobs in the town who drop everything when their pagers go, backed by a full-time coxswain and mechanic. They cover the south west coast of Scotland, from the Firth of Clyde to Ailsa Craig and down the Carrick shore.
The lifeboat
Girvan's lifeboat is the Shannon class 13-23, Elizabeth and Gertrude Allan. She went on service on 20 April 2018 and was named at a ceremony in the harbour on 5 May 2018, christened by coxswain Callum Govus with a quaich of whisky. She was the first Shannon class lifeboat on the west coast of Scotland.
- Cost: £2.1 million, paid for by the John and Elizabeth Allan Memorial Trust, set up by Professor James Allan in memory of his parents. The boat is named after his sisters.
- Speed and range: 25 knots, 250 nautical miles.
- Size: 13 metres long, 18 tonnes.
- Propulsion: water jets rather than propellers, which makes her highly manoeuvrable and able to work in shallow water.
Her first call-out came within weeks, on 2 June 2018, to a motor cruiser that had lost power just outside the harbour. Before her, Girvan had the Mersey class Silvia Burrell, on service from 1993.
A short history
- 1865: the first lifeboat house is built, for £190, on land given by the Duchesse de Coigny.
- 1898: with the telegraph down, two Girvan men cycle a tandem 13 miles to Ballantrae in the middle of the night to raise the alarm for a vessel in distress, and receive the RNLI's Thanks of the Institution.
- 1899: the RNLI pays £25 to the owner of a horse that died during a lifeboat exercise, a reminder that the early boats were hauled to the water by horses.
- 1910: the lifeboat house is rebuilt on a new site, for £800.
- 1965: the station's centenary.
- 1976: the lifeboat James and Barbara Aitken fouls her propeller and is driven onto rocks, and is written off.
- 1993: a new shore facility is built and the Mersey class lifeboat arrives.
- 2004: a new berth is completed in the harbour.
- 2018: the Shannon class lifeboat arrives.
Notable rescues
- January 2015: Girvan and Troon lifeboats go to a 140-tonne trawler with a fouled propeller six miles off Troon. After four and a half hours at sea, Girvan's crew sail home in winds of 91mph. Both crews receive framed letters of thanks from the RNLI's chairman.
- February 2022: during Monday night training, the day after Storm Franklin, a man falls between his boat and the jetty in front of the station and is swept along by the river in spate, which has risen 2.5 metres in 24 hours. The crew hold him against the current and pull him out after about 15 minutes in the water. The crew receive a Chief Executive's Commendation, with an individual commendation for the coxswain.
- August 2023: a rigid inflatable with five people aboard loses power near Ailsa Craig, ten miles offshore, and is towed back to Girvan.
- April 2025: a 48-foot yacht in difficulty off Lendalfoot is towed in at 2am.
- Christmas Eve 2025: a disabled vessel between Turnberry and Maidens.
Visiting the station
The RNLI lists the station as open to visitors on weekdays, 9am to 5pm, with group visits by appointment; phone the station on 01465 714454 to arrange one. The crew train on Monday evenings, so you may see them at work if you are on the harbour then. The best day to see everything is the Harbour Gala.
The RNLI Harbour Gala
The Girvan RNLI Harbour Gala is the station's biggest fundraiser of the year, held over a weekend in late July or early August. In 2026 it ran on 1 and 2 August:
- Saturday: an open day at the station, with the chance to meet the crew and look round the Shannon, a barbecue, a fancy-dress prom parkrun and a children's raft race on the boating pond.
- Sunday: the gala on the promenade and beach, with a lifeboat demonstration, an adults' raft race, a sandcastle competition and a tug of war. Free entry.
In 2024, for the RNLI's 200th anniversary, the crew also kept a liferaft afloat in the harbour for 200 hours, with two people aboard at all times, finishing at 18:24 on 1 August as a nod to the year the RNLI was founded.
Supporting the crew
The RNLI is a charity and Girvan's lifeboat is paid for by donations. You can give through the station's page on the RNLI website, or simply come to the gala and spend money.
