St Davids’ new station (foreground): And old station (background)

ST DAVIDS’ RNLI new Lifeboat Station at St Justinian’s head is now only months away from being completed. Held up by a windy Winter, momentum is building.

The city currently has two stations and operate two All-weather life boats the Tyne-Class and their new Tamar-class lifeboat. The oldest of the two stations has been running for 140 years with the most recent for the last century.

Station Coxwain, Dai John, explained that the two lifeboats are currently needed as the new high-tech Tamar vessel, which is currently being modified in Poole, can only be moored up off the coast, which when conditions are exceptionally rough could see the lifeboat become untethered and destroyed on the cliffs.

The current set up for the North County station is to, move the ship into safer harbours further south like Milford Haven and Neyland when bad weather is forecast. To keep the station going 24/7 they were allowed to keep housing the 28-year veteran Tyne class.

The new station will permanently house the Tamar boat as well as many other state-of-the-art facilities. St Davids RNLI was the last of those in Pembrokeshire to receive a newly constructed or upgraded station.

Undertaken by Bam Nuttall, work on the station was started in June 2014, with many members of contracted staff having worked on previous similar jobs across the country with the company.

Site manager Rhodri Jenkins, who tallies St Davids as his 4th station said: “This was one of the more awkward sites to work on, we’ve had to squeeze the station into a very narrow space.”

Rhodri used the cliff line as an example showing the sheeted rock. he explained: “That sort of rock can easily collapse or slide, so we had to put up this netting and cross-anchor the rock to prevent it happening.”

The site has already had the concrete station foundation stilts laid, the base level put in place and the steel slip stilts bored and placed which are now supporting the extra long slip.

The new slipway, extends further than the current one which will tackle the current issue St Davids’ RNLI faces of retrieving their vessel once launched. Although their current set up and launch 24/7 Dai explained: The issue is once we have returned, at low tide we have to wait a couple of hours before we can winch the boat up.”

The new station has been built with laminated-layered wooden beams which will be exposed upon completion and will last for over 100 years, Rhodri said: “Over the life of the station this style is very cost effective over steel, which others use, that are constantly fighting the elements needing parts cutting out and replaced.”

“With a mixture of the exposed beams and the under floor heating the station will have a very ambient atmosphere.”

The station utilises a method of harnessing sea water to create heat, Rhodri described how the system sucks water through pipework into the station at around 12 degrees with goes through a system which takes maybe four degrees and deposits the 8 degree water back.

“This sustainable heating is an alternative to having a large bore hole to create heat, which is often used.” He said.

The new premises will have full disability access including an internal lift, toilets and a tram system from headland to the front door following the steps.

The station will also join the ranks of few other stations which harbours their in-shore life boat within the same building. With its own indoor garage the in-shore rib, can be lowered to sea level via crane 24/7 to immediately attend incidents within a closer proximity that the all-weather boat needn’t be called out to attend.

Dai noted that all 26 volunteers live within a very short drive of St Justinian’s, which is vital to the rapid response they provide he said: “Our volunteers need to be able to get here in time for launch, which currently is about 10 minutes on the rib and 12 to release the all-weather boat”

According to Dai one of the major benefits will be to the crew facilities for the 28 team members of which two are permanent and 26 are volunteer, he stated: “At the moment we have meeting in the top of the station which has no wall space and is built into the roof so it’s all curved.”

The new design has a large crew designated room which will allow in house training and meetings to take place, he said: “We are lucky that St Davids fire department are letting us use their training room at the moment while we are running day and evening first aid courses.”

Rhodri explained that the whole project at St Davids will cost just shy of £10m by the time it is completed and also said that he expects the usable floor space to be three or four times more than they currently have.

In response to what might happen with the old site, which neighbours the new-build, Dai said: “It was put on the market a little time a go to see if there was any interest, but the future of the station is unclear at the moment.”

The work being done on the new station is heavily dependant on the large crane which is being used to move goods between the mainland and the stilted site, which according to Rhodri has had some trouble with the Winter weather.

Rhodri stated: “The crane cannot operate when winds are 30mph of above so since November lots of the work has been mopping up rather than moving forward.”

“We have been lucky enough to get days where we can move large quantities of what we’re going to need down onto the station which does make up for bad weather that follows.”

Despite the weather, the station’s shape can be already seen, and from the ground floor of the station which will be used solely for crew, the true size of the facility can be appreciated. Rhodri expects completion to be only months away.

Dai said the crew has pencilled in launch tests for June 2016, and they expect the site to be fully transitioned by September this year.

The RNLI rely almost solely on donations from the public as at present only 2% of their total funding comes from government sources.

The work they do has already saved over 140,000 lives nation wide, and the service they provide is made more vital in our county due to Pembrokeshire’s peninsula formation as well as the growing popularity of water sports and the 186mile coastal path.

Dai added: “We are so appreciative of the national and local support for the RNLI, last year we launched a fund raiser in St Davids which had fantastic response.”

For more details on the RNLI, the work they do, and how to donate go to:www.rnli.org