It also provides a stable platform for rescuers.

The Morecambe Bay coastline is too long and the danger area too great to have the hovercraft stationed at one place so it is carried to points within range by a lorry on a platform that can be demounted and lowered to the ground, allowing the hovercraft to 'fly' off. After each rescue mission, the lorry collects the hovercraft.

The ground-loading demountable platform has been made by the Peterborough based Ray Smith Group plc, specialists in demountable truck bodies.

Hydraulic telescopic posts at the corners do the raising and lowering. A long crew-cab is fitted to the low slung Iveco lorry. Down the sides of the chassis are panniers containing equipment and a powerful air compressor to inflate the hovercraft's sponsons so that it can be pushed off the Ray Smith platform when it is demounted and lowered to the ground, an operation that takes about six minutes, controlled electrically by a wander lead.

Flaps around the edges of the platform guard against snagging and provide extra area of thrust bed for the hovercraft's air cushion. When pulled up, the flaps secure the craft while being transported. A power winch at the front provides a back-up aid for loading.

The hovercraft themselves are made by Griffon Hovercraft at Southampton. Two propeller-fans over the stern are driven by 85hp, 1.9 litre Volkswagen intercooled and turbocharged diesel engines which are electronically managed.

A crew of up to six can be carried in a craft measuring 7.6m long by 2.55m wide to comply with road carriage regulations.

The Morecambe Bay boat is the first of three ordered by the RNLI for faster rescues on marshes and wide river estuaries.

One has already been earmarked for the Norfolk coast and the Coastguard is encouraging hovercraft use at the Dee and Mersey estuaries, where people are also caught by tides and sinking sand.

MJ Information No: 18375