Timing is everything.
So at exactly 13:47 on Sunday, Anstruther welcomed home its new £2.5m state-of-the-art Shannon-class lifeboat.
RNLB Robert and Catherine Steen received a huge reaction from locals lining the harbour and beach as the boat bearing the number 13 – 47 arrived on station.
The first part signifies the class of lifeboat, the second is the build number.
And Anstruther can now proudly claim to have the pride of the RNLI fleet in the all-weather, water jet-powered Shannon.
RNLI chiefs say it will halve response times in what is believed to be the UK’s second busiest waterway.
RNLB Kingdom of Fife served station for more than 30 years
The new boat replaces the Mersey-class Kingdom of Fife after more than three decades of service on the East Neuk.
And it will be housed in a new £7m lifeboat station to be built near the harbour.
A formal naming ceremony will take place at a later date.
But locals turned out in force on Sunday to mark the beginning of the new era.
Fife’s ‘Singing Barber’ Cammy Barnes serenaded the new boat and her volunteer crew with a rendition of Caledonia.
Barnett’s Bakery in the town even produced special cakes for the occasion which went down a treat with weekend customers.
The new vessel was flanked by lifeboats from Dunbar, Broughty Ferry and Kinghorn for her arrival.
Local crew travelled south to RNLI College in Poole at the start of the week to bring her home.
Crew boost ahead of homecoming
Sea trials of the Fife lifeboat began at the end of January.
And an appeal for additional volunteers has added a number of new faces to both boat and shore crew.
Plans are also being made for supporters to see the part they played in bringing the lifeboat to Fife.
The new Shannon is one of the charity’s Launch A Memory boats.
This gave people the chance to add a name to its flanks in tribute to a loved one.
Almost 5,000 people took up the opportunity.
Courier photographer Steve Brown captured the lifeboat’s Anstruther arrival.
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