Qualla: Ferryside Lifeboat https://qualla.com/ferryside-lifeboat en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/y/ferryside-lifeboat-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ferryside Lifeboat https://qualla.com/ferryside-lifeboat Ferryside Lifeboat: Introduction https://qualla.com/ferryside-lifeboat/ Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. The boat is called The Freemason because the Freemasons bought it. In 2012, when the Ferryside crew needed a new lifeboat to replace the eighth in their independent service's history, the Province of West Wales Freemasons donated 50,000 pounds towards the 80,000 cost. The rest came from local fundraising, the kind of village-hall and chip-shop work that small lifeboat stations have always run on. On 1 September 2012, with music from the Carmarthen Symphonic Wind Band and the Deputy Grand Master Brian Hilling handing over the keys, the new Ribcraft RIB was dedicated, named, and rolled into service. She has been answering distress calls on the Tywi estuary ever since.

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/y/ferryside-lifeboat-wp/gchy-ferryside-lifeboat-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ferryside Lifeboat: Two Hundred Years of Saving https://qualla.com/ferryside-lifeboat/ Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. The story of lifesaving on this coast begins in 1835 - eleven years after Sir William Hillary founded the institution that would become the RNLI. The first station, Carmarthen Lifeboat Station, was sited not at Ferryside but across the water at Laugharne; it closed in 1843 with n...

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/y/ferryside-lifeboat-wp/gchy-ferryside-lifeboat-two-hundred-years-of-saving.mp3 0:06 2 full Ferryside Lifeboat: St John Cymru and the Inflatable https://qualla.com/ferryside-lifeboat/ Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. By the early 1960s, leisure boating on the estuary had taken off in a way the old commercial-port lifeboat service had never been designed for. The Llanelli division of St John Ambulance Cymru saw the problem first - cadets watching swimmers and small craft get into trouble and n...

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/y/ferryside-lifeboat-wp/gchy-ferryside-lifeboat-st-john-cymru-and-the-inflatable.mp3 0:06 3 full Ferryside Lifeboat: The Talus Tractor https://qualla.com/ferryside-lifeboat/ Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. A lifeboat on a tidal estuary lives or dies by its launch tractor. The Tywi at low water exposes a wide field of sand and mud that no road vehicle can cross; you need a machine purpose-built to drive through water, sand and mud, sometimes fully submerged. In 2016 the Ferryside cr...

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/y/ferryside-lifeboat-wp/gchy-ferryside-lifeboat-the-talus-tractor.mp3 0:06 4 full Ferryside Lifeboat: Standalone https://qualla.com/ferryside-lifeboat/ Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 2024 a decision was taken - amicably, for reasons of mutual benefit, in the language of the formal announcement - to separate the operations of St John Cymru and the Ferryside Marine Division. The lifeboat became a standalone charity, registered with the Charity Commission on ...

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/y/ferryside-lifeboat-wp/gchy-ferryside-lifeboat-standalone.mp3 0:06 5 full Ferryside Lifeboat: What the Tide Does Here https://qualla.com/ferryside-lifeboat/ Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Three Rivers estuary - Tywi, Taf and Gwendraeth converging into Carmarthen Bay - has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, second only to the Bay of Fundy. At spring tides the water can rise or fall more than eight metres in six hours. Channels that look like fordable...

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/y/ferryside-lifeboat-wp/gchy-ferryside-lifeboat-what-the-tide-does-here.mp3 0:06 6 full