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In fact, there are plenty of RNLI lifeguards as well as lifeboats.

The webpage says thay they are lifeguards:
http://www.rnli.org.uk/what_we_do

Ok, this is the REAL face of UK Lifeguards:

A recent rescue:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/news/news_detail?articleid=465627

The website:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/what_we_do/sea_and_beach_safety/rnli_lifeguards

One reason for the RNLI being involved:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/news/news_detail?articleid=466426 ... the Lifeboats regularly found themselves working with Lifeguards on rescues.

Unlike the Lifeboats many of the Lifeguards are funded on a contract basis. Local Government pays the RNLI to provide them, or at least contributes. In many cases the Lifeguards themselves used to be employed by Local Government. By having the RNLI run the Lifeguards on their beaches the Local Council taps into economies of scale on things like equipment purchasing and backup plus the RNLI's training and expertise.

Rick

Ok, this is the REAL face of UK Lifeguards:

A recent rescue:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/news/news_detail?articleid=465627

The website:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/what_we_do/sea_and_beach_safety/rnli_lifeguards

One reason for the RNLI being involved:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/news/news_detail?articleid=466426 ... the Lifeboats regularly found themselves working with Lifeguards on rescues.

Unlike the Lifeboats many of the Lifeguards are funded on a contract basis. Local Government pays the RNLI to provide them, or at least contributes. In many cases the Lifeguards themselves used to be employed by Local Government. By having the RNLI run the Lifeguards on their beaches the Local Council taps into economies of scale on things like equipment purchasing and backup plus the RNLI's training and expertise.

Rick

Ok, this is the REAL face of UK Lifeguards:

A recent rescue:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/news/news_detail?articleid=465627

The website:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/what_we_do/sea_and_beach_safety/rnli_lifeguards

One reason for the RNLI being involved:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/news/news_detail?articleid=466426 ... the Lifeboats regularly found themselves working with Lifeguards on rescues.

Unlike the Lifeboats many of the Lifeguards are funded on a contract basis. Local Government pays the RNLI to provide them, or at least contributes. In many cases the Lifeguards themselves used to be employed by Local Government. By having the RNLI run the Lifeguards on their beaches the Local Council taps into economies of scale on things like equipment purchasing and backup plus the RNLI's training and expertise.

Rick

Further details about the Humber station:

Its the only station with a fully professional crew. Other stations are either all volunteer (those with only Inshore boat), have one (Mechanic) or two (Coxswain & Mechanic) professionals with the rest of the crew being volunteers (the big All Weather boats) or a largely professional crew supplemented by volunteers (the E Class boats on the River Thames in London).

There are several advantages to using volunteers, one very important one being that its possible to justify having stations that do very few rescues but are there for the rare occasions where someone needs them.

YouTube of the installation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozoA4x5k2Dg

Humber Lifeboat Station at the RNLI website:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/north/stations/humbereastyorkshire/?page=2

Humber Lifeboat "Pride of the Humber" - around UKP 2 Million (USD 3 Million) of Fly By Wire All Weather Goodness

http://www.rnli.org.uk/who_we_are/press_centre/photos/photo_detail?articleid=344763

The crews website

http://www.spurnpoint.com/lifeboat.htm

Humber Lifeboat at work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2WtSPcGpKw

No connection with the RNLI btw, other than they once rescued me and I donate by subscription.

Further details about the Humber station:

Its the only station with a fully professional crew. Other stations are either all volunteer (those with only Inshore boat), have one (Mechanic) or two (Coxswain & Mechanic) professionals with the rest of the crew being volunteers (the big All Weather boats) or a largely professional crew supplemented by volunteers (the E Class boats on the River Thames in London).

There are several advantages to using volunteers, one very important one being that its possible to justify having stations that do very few rescues but are there for the rare occasions where someone needs them.

YouTube of the installation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozoA4x5k2Dg

Humber Lifeboat Station at the RNLI website:

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/north/stations/humbereastyorkshire/?page=2

Humber Lifeboat "Pride of the Humber" - around UKP 2 Million (USD 3 Million) of Fly By Wire All Weather Goodness

http://www.rnli.org.uk/who_we_are/press_centre/photos/photo_detail?articleid=344763

The crews website

http://www.spurnpoint.com/lifeboat.htm

Humber Lifeboat at work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2WtSPcGpKw

No connection with the RNLI btw, other than they once rescued me and I donate by subscription.

Generally you are right, however the RNLI does actually do the "Baywatch" type life guards as well. http://www.rnli.org.uk/what_we_do/sea_and_beach_safety/rnli_lifeguards

You must remember that our national life boar service (RNLI) is a CHARITY and receives NO government sponsorship whatsoever. They get all there cash by collecting in the streets, collecting tins in shops and charity events... They are a truly amazing charity and save hundreds of lives . All there members are highly motivated volunteers who have ordinary jobs but when called upon drop everything and go and save lives what ever the weather. So my point is that it is not so amazing that they dug there own fiber link, they do after all maintain all there own kit and are out to save as much cash as possible because they don't have that much of it in the first place. http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you

Cost in volunteer time - if there's a website - somebody built it. Volunteering is fine if a couple of hours a week but what if it needs 2 years full time work? I think volunteering is crucial and can work but often you require some paid staff to make critical things happen. I don't think the big charities are an evil conspiracy - maybe research what their model is.

An interesting organisation is the Royal National Lifeboats Association in the UK - all the ship crew are volunteers, these are the guys who save drowning seamen off UK coastlines. But their headquarters support, their R and D, these are all paid staff.

Plus - do you know the end users? can you always balance the urgency of needs? Some cases of need might not be as "attractive" as others. What touches your heart strings might not be the most urgent case. Might need neutral professional in the middle, i.e. charity workers, who are better informed about where aid should go. Personally I'd rather have full time paid professionals working out who's most needy than some wealthy semi-retired housewives half way across the planet making life or death decisions for tsunami victims or rural Pakistani villages needing shelter *now*.

These sorts of thing (people coming together for the benefit of society) existed long before America itself. The modern word for it is socialism.

The UK and Europe in general is covered with voluntary community associations ranging from simple meeting groups for the elderly all the way up to things like the RNLI a voluntary lifeboat service the auxiliary voluntary fire service and a volunteer ambulance service (St Johns). Seriously voluntary community associations are probably as old and as common as humanity.

I don't see how the MS - Linux competition has anything whatsoever to do with Bill and Melissa's charitable work. I'm no fan of Microsoft and I do avoid using MS products wherever possible, but the comparsion here should be with other of the worlds wealthy. How do Larry Ellison's charitable contributions stack up, for example?

Not everything about Bill Gates is a Microsoft vs Linux issue.

Personally, I think that my use of free-as-in-beer alternatives to commercial products does increase my charitable donations because I have more disposable income available to me. In theory it means that Bill et al have less available to them to donate to their favourite charity, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over that.

In case you are wondering what to do with the money you saved from using free software, here are some of my preferred charities. Enjoy:

• Samaritans
• RNLI (Lifeboats)
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The Coastguard is responsible for coordinating various organizations (RNLI,RAF, RN etc.) in search and rescue operations in the UK. It is a agency of the department of transport. They monitor the emergency broadcast channels for the UK and a large section of the Atlantic ocean and often further a field. Throughout the UK they have a number of rescue teams who often get involved with more than just maritime emergencies. The RNLI as you stated is a charity, staffed almost completely by unpaid volunteers. If a ship at sea needed assistance, HM Coastguard would be contacted and possibly send the nearest RNLI lifeboat to assist.