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St Helier's all-weather lifeboat is to return to the island this afternoon.
The 'George Sullivan' boat was removed alongside the island's inshore vessel following an internal dispute between the RNLI and St Helier crew last month.
The 30-tonne Tamar ship can carry in excess of 100 survivors, and has sufficient towing force to pull most boats and prevent larger vessels from running aground. It is also self-righting, capable of speeds of 25 knots and can travel up to 250 nautical miles.
After several weeks away, it will return to its St Helier mooring at around 16:00 today, so that training can begin with the new crew.
Liam Krige, RNLI Channel Islands Area Lifesaving Manager, said that the RNLI were "delighted" to welcome the boat back to the island.
Video: The new Jersey crew training at the RNLI College in Poole.
"This is an important milestone in our plan to restore a full lifesaving service to Jersey with a local volunteer RNLI crew at the earliest opportunity
"Volunteers with previous lifeboating experience have already completed the first stages of their all-weather training in Poole and will now return to the island, with the recently serviced lifeboat. We hope to have the boat back in full service with the new crew by the end of March 2018.
"We thank the local volunteer crew for the considerable commitment they have shown to us, and to the people of Jersey. We look forward to the recruitment open days this weekend and to providing the high standard of training needed to run our lifesaving service."
The news comes just one day after the David Page, an Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat, came back into service.
This evening, the Independent Jersey Lifeboat Service, which is largely formed of members of the former St Helier crew - will hold their third public meeting on their new service.
They say that part of their plans will involve purchasing a French lifeboat.
Pictured: The type of vessel the Jersey Independent Lifeboat Service hope to secure.
As with previous meetings - both of which have been full to capacity - the team will share their side of the story on the ongoing RNLI dispute, as well as some of their plans for the future. This will be followed by a public Q&A.
It will be held at 20:00 tonight in St Peter's Community Centre.
More to follow...
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