A scale model of a ‘Watson’ class lifeboat, circa 1931

This1.32 scale presentation model has a carved hull finished in white and blue with a red wale and RNLI pennant on the bow.  The deck is painted blue-grey and fitted with grab rails, deck rails, bitts, a folding mast with navigation lights, a fitted cockpit and other details.  It is mounted on four plated columns above a stepped wooden display base with a brass plate engraved ‘41ft Watson class motor lifeboat. Length 41ft, Beam 11ft8″, Displmt 14.5t, crew 8, draught 3’8″, twin screw, spd 7.5kts, blt 1931-52’ and later hinged oak and plexiglass case.

The 41ft Watson-class was a non-self-righting displacement hull lifeboat built between 1931 and 1952 and operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution between 1931 and 1981.  It was designed for service at stations that required a larger and more powerful boat than the standard carriage-launched types, but which could not accommodate the larger Watson types through boathouse or slipway constraints.  In all 18 boats were completed.  It had an aft cockpit with a cabin ahead of it, containing the engine controls, and a separate forward shelter with room in the two for 16 people.  The boats carried two sails as an auxiliary to the twin Weyburn AE6 6-cylinder petrol engines.