“James And Mariska Joicey” is an historic ex RNLI Solent Class Lifeboat, ON1008, 48-005, built in 1969 to an RNLI order of four identical vessels by Messrs. Groves & Gutteridge ship builders at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England. ON1008, 48-005, “James And Mariska Joicey” was the second of the eleven Solent Class RNLI Lifeboats eventually built. The Solent Class vessels were actually the Mk3 version of the Richard Oakley, Marine Architect designed 48’6′ x 14′ Oakley Class Lifeboats of which there was one Mk1 and four Mk2 variants built.
ON1008 Buckie Boatyard undergoing a refit in 1986
The main difference (others will be highlighted in the Technical pages of this website) being that the Mk3 (Solent) version had a hull built from 1/4″ COR-TEN or Weathering Steel rather than the more traditional double diagonal Mahogany of the Mk1 and Mk2 boats.
It was stated by the RNLI that the change to the Corten Steel hull material was implemented to find an alternative hull building methodology to counter the ever dwindling numbers of craftsmen wooden boat builders that were available in the country by the late 1960s. Additionally it was hoped to reduce the material costs for each boat by eschewing the use of increasingly scarce and expensive tropical hardwoods. in practice no noticeable materiall cost savings were actually made, as Corten Steel with its very high copper content is an expensive material in its own right. Of course a large number of precious rain forest trees were saved from destruction with the change to Corten Steel, a praiseworthy outcome at the start of the environmental conservation moment, albeit arguably unintentional at the time! The latter two Mk 2 Oakley 48’6″ lifeboats built, ON1015, 48-12 “Charles Henry” and ON1016, 48-13, “Princess Marina” were completed and put on station simultaneously and at very similar costs with the first of the Solent Class boats, in 1969 and 1970 respectively. ON1008 was built at a cost of £65,000 paid for as a gift from the James Joicey Trust, set up by the legacy of James Joicey’s wife, Mariska Joicey who died in 1964, the same legacy also paid for the 1966 built 37′ Oakley Class Lifeboat, ON984, 37-17, “Mary Joicey”, now retired and preserved in on display at the Newbiggen Maritime Centre in Northumberland.
The Solent Class Lifeboats were designed to operate on RNLI service with a crew of 7 (occasionally 8 if a Doctor was required). They could carry up to a maximum of around 100 survivors if required and still remain fully seaworthy.
The dimensions are; Length 48′ 6″, Beam 14′, draught 4′ 7″ and displacing 28 tons. Top speed is 9.25 knots (10.65 mph) and the range at full speed is a radius of 115 miles with full fuel tanks. The Solent has a main fuel tank of 173 gallons built into the hull ahead of the fwd engine room bulkhead and a secondary fuel tank of 64 gallons in the after heat exchanger compartment, making a total fuel capacity of 237 gallons. The engines will run off each tank separately or off both tanks simultaneously depending on how the fuel cocks are set. Each tank feeds through a pair of switchable cartridge fuel filters and there is a fuel transfer pump linking both tanks so that fuel can be transferred to adjust the trim of the hull if required.
After her self-righting and sea trials, ON1008 was sailed through the English Channel and North Sea up the east coast of England and Scotland from Poole in July 1969 by the then Scottish Divisional Inspector, Lieutenant Commander Brian Miles (later Director of the RNLI). Coincidently my Dad, RNLI Staff Coxswain Ian Cameron Ives, was simultaneously sailing Solent Class Lifeboat, ON1007, 48-004, “George Urie Scott” from Cowes up the English Channel and Irish Sea along the west coasts of England, Wales and Scotland to be stationed at the then new RNLI Lochinver Station.
Subsequently from 1969 to 1986 “James And Mariska Joicey” was stationed at RNLI Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where she replaced the 1939 built, 46′ Watson Class Lifeboat, ON819, “Julia Park Barry of Glasgow’ that was on station at Peterhead 1939 – 1969.
ON1008 was officially named “James And Mariska Joicey” on Saturday June 6th 1970 at 3pm during her Naming Ceremony & Dedication in Peterhead Harbours by Miss Magda Joicey, daughter of Mariska Joicey.
ON1008 launched on service 73 times with 41 lives saved whilst on her active RNLI duty between 1969 and 1989.
After leaving Peterhead for a refit in 1986/7, “James And Mariska Joicey” was permanently replaced at Peterhead by the new Tyne Class Lifeboat, ON1127, 47-019, “Babs And Agnes Robertson” (Peterhead 1988 – 2006) and so “James And Mariska Joicey” was then stationed at the RNLI Lizard Lifeboat Station in Landewednack Parish, Cornwall, the most southerly point on the British mainland from 1987 to 1988. She relived the former RNLI Padstow Lifeboat ON989, 48′ 6″ Oakley Mk2, “James And Catherine Macfarlane” which had served at The Lizard 1984 – 1987 which went on display at Lands End for over 25 years and is now under full restoration.
In 1988 “James And Mariska Joicey” handed over duty at The Lizard to the brand new 47′ Tyne Class Lifeboat, ON1145, 47 – 030, “David Robinson” (which remained at the Lizard unit 2011) and “James And Mariska Joicey” joined the relief fleet until 1990 and at a mere 20 years, old she was sold out of service. This was due to a policy of the RNLI to have faster vessels on station by 1995, the Tyne Class (which largely replaced the Solent Class on station) being rated at 17.6 knots top speed compared to the Solent Class at 9.25 knots.
The final Solent Class Lifeboats were retired from RNLI service in 1993, specifically ON1019, 48-014, “Lady MacRobert” and ON1020, 40-015, “Hugh William Viscount Gough”. After their RNLI careers four Solent Class Lifeboats continued in service with other SAR services abroad, ON1009 to Estonia, ON1011 to Australia, ON1012 & ON1019 to ADES in Uruguay. At the time of writing this, ON1019 in Uruguay as ADES 12 was still in service in March 2020 with ADES but it appears that the old lady may finally be retiring from active duty soon, well deserved after 47 years of service. Not only is she is the last Solent Class Lifeboat still on active SAR service, she is at 48 years old, the last traditional double ended type ex RNLI Lifeboat in service anywhere in the world, an amazing achievement and testament to the exceptional high design and build quality of these Richard Oakley designed and British craftsmen built vessels.
After deeming her to be surplus to operational requirements in late 1989, the RNLI offered ON1008 for sale by a sealed bids tender system, with the highest bidder generally but not necessarily being chosen as occasionally desirable future operational issues were a deciding factor. These tenders were to be submitted no later than the 2nd March 1990.
Subsequently “James And Mariska Joicey” went into private ownership, changing hand a few times and carrying out various activities from trip boat even as a long distance drug smuggling vessel (during which time she was impounded on the River Thames by UK Customs prior to being auctioned off a little while later post very critical examination)!
Her third post RNLI private owner was a Mr Bruce Henley of Brixham, Devon who renamed her “Mirage of Dart” for use as a trip boat at Dartmouth, Devon. Mr Henley subsequently sold ON1008 to a Mr Alex Wright on 24th October 1997 for £34,000 and she was delivered for him to Surrey Quays in London. She was re registered as 338872 on the 15th October 1998 on an initially temporary basis. Mr Wright removed the original RNLI Baby Blakes sea toilet and hand basin in the heads compartment and made some initial changes to the fore-cabin.
In April 1999 after 17 months of ownership and a mere 20 hours of engine running time later Mr Wright sold ON1008 to a pan European religious group for the sum of £24,000, this sale included four brand new 480ah batteries. Representatives of the new owners sailed her on the 14th December 1999 from London to St. Peterport in Guernsey where on the 31st January 2000 she was registered on 33872 as “Thee Hearts”. She was inspected at this point and the hull was found to be in excellent condition with no dents and only light foulding by marine growth, she was blasted off back to bare metal up to the water line and new anti-foul paint applied at this time. Whilst visiting Plymouth in May 2000 a new Wagner Auto Helm, hydraulic ram and modified binnacle were fitted at the cost of some £4,650 for the auto helm plus the cost of other navigational equipment including a new Sea Scout sonar / fish finder transducer.
She was then sailed via Cornwall and around the west coast of Ireland and up into Mulroy Bay in Co. Donegal. It was while moored here under conversion into a floating chapel/religious retreat that after a few months she unfortunately dragged her anchor during a heavy storm which came in off the Atlantic and combined with the accompanying storm surge this deposited her onto the northern shore of the Moross Channel inland of Broad Water. The conversion work using vast quantities of expensive insulation and timber facings to line the fore, aft cabins and wheelhouse, continued for a while, including the fitting of a pair of crude temporary sea legs of 10″ section steel H girders in an attempt to keep her on a more even keel whilst ashore. After a few months, during which time her wheelhouse and after cabin were raised around 18″ and 12″ respectively, she was left, semi – abandoned and partially vandalised. Then with time rapidly running out for her in December 2013, the present owner Callum Ives and his good friend Dr Rob Galvin after being kindly driven over from Belfast International Airport by a great pair of lads from the religious organisation who owned ON1008 at the time, viewed her in a blizzard and immediately, spurred on by optimistic fervour, Callum decided to purchase her! As previously suggested, it subsequently transpired to be just in the nick of time as the local farmer and landowner in Co.Donegal, Martin Sweeney was effectively at the point of buying ON1008 for scrap metal, just to clear her away from his local beach where the constant stream of visitors coming to view ON1008 and the corresponding impingement on his family’s privacy was becoming intolerable.
After a brief period of inspection and temporary repair to broken windows etc., a method was conceived with the (initially reluctant but subsequently generous) help of Martin Sweeney who had by now become a good friend, to re-float “James And Mariska Joicey” during the Spring Tide in mid August 2014 this plan was executed with precision and great success! There will be more expansive explanation and a full report on the re-launch in the Restoration section of this website.
ON1008 was then worked on as leave from work and money permitted until by July 2015 she was patched up, running and seaworthy in a safe but basically functional sense. We sailed with a local pilot to guide us sans sonar through the treacherous and labyrinthine navigation of the Moross Channel, Broad Water, spending a day there moored up to carry out running repairs. The next day we crossed the shallow bar of Mulroy Bay and out into the Atlantic Ocean itself, there under escort by Bernard Condon in his immaculate ex RNLI 47″ Watson Class lifeboat “Joseph Soar” we steamed the 5 hour passage around Malin Head.
We then arrived at Portrush Harbour and after very carefully negotiating a dog leg route through the moored yachts in the harbour and negotiating the Severn Class Lifeboat, we arrived on the Customs Pontoon and only slightly bent the gate frame before mooring up. After taking much needed and pleasurably hot showers in the Portrush Yacht Club, we were made very welcome by the Harbour Master, the late and much missed Robert Anderson and subsequently by our good friends Richard and Lee for the night, the Gin and Tonics were the best we’d ever tasted! The next day we sailed across the bay up the serpentine curves of the River Bann into the lovely town of Coleraine where “James And Mariska Joicey” was taken into the care of the Harbour Master Pat and his excellent team onto the hard standing at Coleraine Harbour before going into the number 2 shed in September 2016 for restoration, finally being re-launched in September 2019. Final refitting will be carried out once we are able to get back aboard as the lockdown restrictions are hopefully eased. Following this sea trials will be carried out before undertaking a celebratory and promotional passage to her proposed new mooring near Falmouth. This was originally planned for April / May 2020 but of course has now been delayed by a year so far because the global COVID-19 pandemic during which she will call at places relevant to ON1008 including a return to her last station RNLI Lizard after an absence of 33 years. Updates will follow!
