HELENSBURGH’S new RNLI lifeboat will be officially named and dedicated at a ceremony at the local lifeboat station next weekend.

The new Atlantic 85 B class lifeboat, ‘Angus and Muriel Mackay’, entered service from the Helensburgh station at Rhu Marina towards the end of last year.

The service of dedication, on Saturday, May 19 at 1.30pm, will be led by the Rev Richard Rowe RN, while Mike Wood, representing the RNLI’s donors, will officially hand the lifeboat into the care of the RNLI and will then perform the naming ceremony.

The lifeboat is named after a Scottish couple who met in Aberdeen in 1936 and who retired to the ‘Granite City’ after living in Singapore and then in Sydney.

Muriel spent her entire working life in education, while Angus served in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in the Second World War and later with the Straight Steamship Company and the Singapore Harbour Board.

The couple were lifelong supporters of the RNLI and stipulated that most of their legacies should go towards the funding of a lifeboat.

The new Helensburgh lifeboat entered service on December 8, 2017, replacing the Atlantic 75 B-class vessel ‘Gladys Winifred Tiffney’, which was retired after being used on 499 'shouts' in the course of 15 years at the Helensburgh station.

First introduced into the RNLI fleet in 2005, the Atlantic 85 lifeboat has a top speed of 35 knots, compared to the 32 knots of the Atlantic 75.

The Atlantic 85 is also slightly wider and longer than her predecessor, and has a larger fuel capacity, giving her maximum range of three hours, compared to the 2.5 hours of the 75 model.

Both B-class models have capacity for 20 people, though the new craft can accommodate up to four crew members, while its predecessor was limited to a maximum of three.

The new lifeboat is the tenth to be used by the RNLI's volunteer crews in Helensburgh since the station opened in 1965.