The Tyne class boat at Tenby is to be replaced

The RNLI is to start providing crews with new ultra-modern rescue boats.

They are larger than some of those currently in use and stations, including St David's in Pembrokeshire and Mumbles in Gower, will need to be upgraded or replaced to accommodate them.

Full details of the new station at Tenby are to be unveiled later in the week and plans for a boat house come before the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in June.

It looks like work will start at Tenby at the end of July and be completed in 2004 RNLI spokesman

The crew at the seaside resort are to be among the first in the UK to take delivery of the new Tamar-class boat.

Tenby is a busy station, particularly during the summer tourist season.

This year the crew has dealt with incidents ranging from missing children to ferrying paramedics out to nearby Caldey Island.

Last August the boat was launched when a five-year-old boy drifted out to sea on a toy dinghy.

He abandoned the rubber inflatable before the emergency services could reach him and, despite receiving medical treatment on the beach, he later died.

The �1m craft is 16.25 metres long compared with the 14 metre Tyne class model it will replace. It is also taller and wider

Work will begin on the Tenby lifeboat station later in the year.

Listed building

Attention will then turn to St David's, also in Pembrokeshire, which could then be followed by Mumbles.

The station at Mumbles, which is reached from the pier, is a local landmark.

Opened in 1922, it has been given listed building status.

Mumbles has a special place in the hearts of the RNLI after all eight of the crew of the Edward, Prince of Wales, lost their lives in 1947 while going to the aid of the SS Samtampa at Sker Point.

Eighteen lifeboat have died at Mumbles in the line-of-duty over the years.

But that high price has seen the station save more than 600 lives and crew members have received various awards for bravery.

Early discussions have already taken place between the Bollam family which owns the pier, Swansea Council planners, the RNLI and other interested parties.

The lifeboat station at Mumbles could be replaced

Ideally a new station would be built at the end of the pier as the water is deeper at low tide.

A spokesman for the RNLI said details of the development at Tenby would be announced later this week.

"It looks like work will start at Tenby at the end of July and be completed in 2004," he said.

But he said the replacement stations at St David's and Mumbles could be some way off.

"They are at an early discussion stage with planners," he added.

Work would be unlikely to begin for another three to four years and no decision has been made on what would happen to the existing buildings.

But the RNLI has pledged all new stations will be designed to fit in with their surroundings.