The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) station at Sheerness in northern Kent will place a new lifeboat into service at midday (local time) on Friday, July 30.
Judith Copping Joyce has replaced The George and Ivy Swanson as the station's all-weather lifeboat. The latter vessel will be relegated to training duties after having been on operations since 1996.
Judith Copping Joyce has a length of 13.6 metres, a beam of 4.54 metres, a draught of 0.75 metres, self-righting ability, and two Scania 484kW engines that deliver a speed of 25 knots and a range of 250 nautical miles.
The new boat was delivered to Sheerness RNLI earlier in April of this year.