Lifeboat_College Knowpia

Lifeboat College
Lifeboat College
	View in September 2009, with Atlantic 85 lifeboat B815
	Lifeboat College in Dorset
General information
Type	College and national HQ
Address	Poole, BH15 1HZ
Country	England
Coordinates	50°43′N 1°59′W / 50.72°N 1.99°W
Elevation	2 m (7 ft)
Current tenants	RNLI staff
Construction started	January 2003
Completed	2004
Inaugurated	28 July 2004
Cost	£18 million
Client	RNLI
Owner	RNLI
Technical details
Floor count	5
Design and construction
Structural engineer	Faber Maunsell
Main contractor	Dean and Dyball
Website
	Official website

The Lifeboat College is the national training centre of the RNLI in Poole, Dorset, England.

History edit

The RNLI has around 4,600 crew members. The RNLI receives no government financial assistance.

Construction edit

The turf was cut in January 2003. It was built by Dean and Dyball of Hampshire. It was opened by the Queen on 28 July 2004.^[1]

Structure edit

It is situated slightly north of, and next-door to, the famous speedboat manufacturer Sunseeker on the west side of Holes Bay, off the A350. Directly to the north is the large Asda Poole. On the opposite side of the road is the RNLI Support Centre. Also nearby is the RNLI All-Weather Lifeboat Centre (ALC)^[2] which opened in August 2015.

It is a residential college and has sixty bedrooms.^[3] It has an annual cost of around £1.1 million. It aimed to train around 4,000 people a year, although around 1,500 are currently^[when?] trained each year. It often hosts exhibitions and conferences with organisations unconnected to the RNLI, such as trade exhibitions. It has a 120-seat auditorium.

A lifeboat simulator, with a five-metre-radius cylindrical visualisation screen with Digital Light Processing (DLP), was provided by Antycip Simulation UK of Oxfordshire.

Training edit

It has a Sea Survival Centre with a 25 m × 12.5 m × 4 m deep wave pool.

Visits edit

On 5 February 2014, CBBC series 2 episode 3 of Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom visited the college, with instructor Matt Cridland. It was filmed on 24 September 2013.