RNLI founded since 1824 is the world’s largest charity that saves lives at sea. They operate in and around coasts of UK, Ireland, the Isle of Mann and the channel Islands. The RNLI lifeguards serve in more than 200 beaches and operate 444 lifeboats. In 2013, RNLI launched 270 vessels to aid the commercial and Ministry of Defence ships. Since 2001, about 140,000 lives have been saved. Their daily operating costs range at £410,000 per day, met mostly by public donations.
Guy Rose, the Legacy manager at RNLI admits that out of every 6/10 lifeboat launches are made possible only because of gifts from well-wishers and donors.
Mr Richard Colton was a prominent member of the V12 Ferrari Owner’s club and he is said to have owned 10 cars. In March 2015, he died at the age of 82. Mr Colton was a well-known businessman who was known to be nervous at sea, bequeathed two of his prized possessions – a Ferrari 250 GT SWB from 1960, and a Ferrari 275 GTB/4, built in 1967 to the RNLI.
These two vintage cars are believed to the first of steel-bodied 250GT SWBs ever made. Both these cars, are to be auctioned by H&H classics, at the Imperial War Museum. The auction is to take place on 14th October 2015. Two similar vehicles sold recently fetched about £8million.
The proceeds of the sale would go towards procuring two Shannon class all-weather lifeboats, complete with launch and recovery equipment, costing about £2.1m each. Guy Rose, the Legacy manager at RNLI said that the proceeds would go towards helping their volunteer lifeboat crews save lives at sea. The lifeboats shall go to their Northamptonshire branch and shall be named after Richard and Caroline Colton – its benefactors.
