GIRVAN Lifeboat Station will host an official naming ceremony this weekend at the Harbour.

A special event will take place on Saturday, May 5 at 2pm for everyone who is interested to attend. 

The Shannon class all-weather lifeboat is the first of its kind on the west coast of Scotland worth £2.1 million. She replaced Girvan’s Mersey class lifeboat.

The Shannon Class lifeboat will arrive at Girvan Lifeboat Station in December. 

A spokesperson for Girvan Lifeboat, said: “It has been a long haul for everyone at Girvan Lifeboat station starting last year with crew travelling down to Poole for various aspects of Shannon training while the boat build was nearing completion.

“Other training was also being carried out at various locations and this led to the crew heading South once again for further training and bringing our new Shannon Class all-weather lifeboat 13-23 Elizabeth and Gertrude Allan home on December 10.

“Since then we have been very busy with new crew coming in and getting up to speed on both the Mersey class lifeboat and the Shannon, and further intensive Shannon training for all crew, culminating on final Shannon operational pass outs on Monday, April 16.

“We are pleased to announce after all the hard work from everyone involved, later today after final inspections by our coxswain and ALM.

“Once changeover is finalised and from that point onwards Lifeboat 13-23 (ON1330) Elizabeth and Gertrude Allan will be formally on service at Girvan Lifeboat station and will serve the area and community for many years to come.

 “Thanks to all of our crew, their families, everyone at our station, trainers, assessors and all involved throughout the process in getting to this stage.

“We will keep you all informed as to our outgoing Mersey class lifeboat 12-37 Silvia Burrell in the following days/week’s and look forward to seeing everyone at our new lifeboats official naming ceremony on Saturday, May 5 at 2pm at Girvan Harbour.”