boat. It's an all weather, offshore lifeboat, which due to the nature of the coastline where it is stationed, needs to be launched and recovered from a beach at all states of the tide.. " "SYBARITE - That's not what the RNLI management say nor posters on here. They say that the jets are designed for shallow water operations." The fact does remain that the Shannon is an expensive boat - but it does both the job of the French RIBS which you are using as the solution to shallow water and Offshore All-Weather Boats, it is truly dual purpose where the French would need to use two boats to achieve the same purpose (Shallow water launching of an All Weather rescue capability) - The French don't seem to have a boat which can do both jobs to the best performance, and so the cost, it would appear, is justified. Will you PLEASE clarify that you admit the Shannon is a dual purpose boat, and not designed solely for shallow water rescue - as this has been your apparent position so far? I did ask you to do that previously and you said I was talking at cross purposes without answering the question... __________________ My postings are my own opinion and do not represent GaelForce Group unless stated. Also, the sort of places where they use a carriage launched boat tend to be drying harbours. So actually, they're saving lots and lots of money, because the only other way to