In June 1969 Lt/Cdr Alan Hollman, the NSRI Operations Officer as he then was visited the area to assess the possibility of establishing a sea rescue station to serve the Walker Bay area. This was 2 years after the founding of NSRI in May 1967 His findings were not encouraging. Local officials went on record as saying there was no need for a boat. Further, those fund-raising flag days and the like normally grossed R80 to RI00 only, and apart from a few skin divers, the population was too inactive to man a rescue craft, their habit being to rise at about 10h00 and to go to bed at 19h00. 

It was felt that as regards Gansbaai a rescue boat would seldom if ever, be required and the opinion was reached that no effort would prove worthwhile in the sleepy town of Hermanus. There the matter rested for some years until 1977. Graham Westcott and some fellow Rotarians held to the idea of a rescue station. Their interest was given quite a fillip by the visit to Hermanus harbour of the 10m rescue craft Spirit of Rotary whilst on passage to Mossel Bay. Pat Dowdle, who had been associated with Station 3 and was later to become Secretary, joined the group and following Headquarters approval a meeting was held in Hermanus attended by Dougie Van Riet (NOTC), Captain Tony Pearson, Lt/Cdr Alan Hollman, the Harbour Master Duimpie Lourens, Graham Westcott, Pat Dowdle and retired Professional Engineer Denbigh Smith.

A Steering Committee was formed with Denbigh Smith as chairman and the request made to Headquarters that the Mercury Snailfish hull of the Port Alfred’s boat, then lying in Knysna and due for decommissioning, could be made available for a station at Hermanus. The Snailfish was brought from Knysna to Hermanus, but while in Knysna the hull of an RL 21 was noted and in Graham Westcott’s opinion, this would serve the purpose of an IRB better than anything else available. 

By good fortune at this time the Board of Executors sponsorship for a rescue boat was agreed to, the RL 21 hull: was surveyed and pronounced satisfactory by Headquarters and purchased for Station 17, thanks to the Florence Carter Trust. These funds covered the cost of the boat, engines and equipment while the raising of the money needed for the preparation of the site and the construction of the base building was to be the responsibility of the station.

So it was that the hull of Florence Carter was brought to Hermanus and work by the crew commenced on the fitting out of the boat together with all the other items needed to establish the station. The Snailfish hull was taken to Hout Bay, Station 8, where she went into service in January 1979. Mr Grobbelaar of the Fisheries Development Corporation greatly assisted with the necessary administrative arrangements for the approval of the site, and a generous donation of R3,000-00 made by Mr Clive Corder ensured that the whole project could get off to a good start. 

The site for the station and boathouse building was cleared and the necessary blasting was done with the help of the Hermanus Municipality and arrangements put in hand for the lease of the site from the Department of Agricultural Credit and Land Tenure. Fund-raising naturally figured in the steering committee’s efforts and the first cake sale organised brought in R400. The Rotary Club of Hermanus was active in fund-raising for the boathouse. The clearing of the site cost R1,700 and the station building and boathouse (builder Gordon Main) cost R12,000.

Work on equipping of the boat together with the recruitment of crew continued and in October Graham Westcott, who by now had assumed the position of Station Commander, and Mike Clark attended, as observers, the Station Commanders’ Conference in Port Elizabeth. The launching cradle for the boat was constructed locally. The design was novel and came to be known as the “haycart” type, this style of cradle later being copied and used by other stations. 

On 24 October 1978 the IRB Florence Carter was named by Mrs Carter and after being blessed by Rev. Claude Mitchell, was officially handed over to NSRI. Shell(SA) generously sponsored fuel costs. Active crew strength on commissioning was 11, and it’s noteworthy that nearly 11 years later six of the original crew are still serving the station. With the station becoming operational the Steering Committee disbanded and a Station Committee was formed, Denbigh Smith being the Chairman.