John S. Platt reporting about RNI in 1999

Updated Friday July 2nd 1999

In August, a memorable event will take place in British waters. An ex-Trinity House lightvessel will be used to broadcast commercial radio programs off the Essex coast. The last time a lightvessel was used as a radio station was during the 1960's when Radio Scotland broadcast from the ex-Irish lightvessel "Comet".

The intention of this new project is to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the R.N.L.I. and to commemorate the offshore radio station, Radio Northsea International. All profits made from the venture are to be donated to the R.N.L.I.

Trinity House lightvessel no: 18 last saw service on the Dowsing station and was withdrawn from service in 1987. Since then, she has been moored at Harwich and used as a store by Trinity House.

In 1996 Sea Containers Ltd bought her with the intention of using the ship as a centrepiece for their proposed marina development at Gas House Creek, Harwich. The project did not go ahead and the vessel remained laid-up.

In February 1999, Paul Graham approached Sea Containers with a proposal to use the vessel during August as a radio station. In April, agreement was given and work to renovate the vessel commenced in May. The old girl was in a very neglected state, rust was everywhere, paint was peeling off and much rubbish had been put on board her. The heli-deck had so much grass growing on it that it was muted whether to leave it there and just mow it once a week.

Work is progressing fast a pace with 55% of the preparations complete. Paul Graham acts as the Project Manager, Clive Boutell deals with electrical and plumbing problems whilst Colin Lamb deals with the programming for the radio output.

The cleaning, painting and all the other dirty jobs are carried out by a myriad of volunteers, sometimes working 8 hours a day, including me.

Broadcasting equipment has been acquired and a 95-foot aerial tower will be erected on the Heli-deck.

The target date for completion of the project is the last week in July. The vessel will be towed to a Trinity House buoy off Holland-on-Sea and the vessel will fly the R.N.L.I. flag. Transmissions should start on August 3rd on a frequency of 190 metres (1575 kHz) in the medium wave band and will continue until the end of the month.

It is intended to accurately reproduce the RNI format, using original jingles and other material associated with the station but all programming will be live. The station will be called RNI III and Erwin Meister has contacted Paul Graham to give his approval and encouragement.

The potential audience is 500,000 and sufficient advertising and sponsorship has already been found to cover the costs for the whole event. It is hoped that at the end, the R.N.L.I. will receive a significant donation.

When the broadcasting period is over, the vessel will be returned to its mooring at Harwich but the project will not end there. If sufficient funding can be acquired, it is intended to repeat the exercise for the Millennium celebrations and then turn the old girl into a lightvessel and offshore radio museum.

The pictures here show the vessel at the very start of renovation. As the work progresses more pictures will be added to show the progress of the project and during August I will be spending some time on the vessel. I will provide further reports and pictures as we take to the air.

If you have any original material relating to RNI which you think may be of use to the project, please contact me. All help is appreciated and this may be your chance to be associated with a worthwhile project.

e-mail: xpz67@btinternet.com

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