Why Penlee’s Ivan Ellen is built for the seas off Land’s End

Two of the biggest lifeboats the RNLI owns are moored side by side in Newlyn harbour this week. Only one of them is staying.

Penlee RNLI‘s own Severn class lifeboat, Ivan Ellen, is due to leave Newlyn tomorrow (Wednesday 28 October) for a refit. Her place on the mooring goes to Volunteer Spirit, another Severn class boat, which will cover the station for around 10 months.

It is a straight swap, like for like. And there is a reason Penlee needs a boat of that size.

The biggest boat in the fleet

The Severn class is the largest lifeboat operated by the RNLI. At 17.3 metres long, it came into service in 1996 and can provide cover up to 125 nautical miles offshore.

Ivan Ellen has two 1,250hp Caterpillar engines, giving her 2,500hp in total and a top speed of 25 knots. She is self-righting, so if a huge sea knocks her over she will come back up on her own within seconds. Her propellers and rudders sit in partial tunnels in the hull, which protects them when she has to work in shallow water.

She also carries a small inflatable Y-boat that can be lowered by crane, so the crew can reach places the big boat cannot.

Ivan Ellen arrived at Penlee in 2003. She has been the station’s all-weather lifeboat ever since.

Why a Severn sits at this end of Cornwall

According to Penlee RNLI, the Severn’s ability to withstand the most severe sea conditions, and her strength on long offshore searches and rescues, is the reason Ivan Ellen was based at Newlyn in the first place.

Look at a chart of the waters she covers and the reasoning is easy to follow.

Off Land’s End, between the Longships and the Seven Stones, ships passing between the English Channel and the Irish Sea are routed through an internationally agreed traffic separation scheme, with northbound and southbound vessels kept in separate lanes. Further out, there is another scheme around the Isles of Scilly.

When the Maritime and Coastguard Agency surveyed the Land’s End lanes in August 2006, it counted an average of 29 ships a day passing through. The busiest day that month saw 45.

Then there is Newlyn itself. In 2024, according to the Marine Management Organisation, it recorded the highest quantity and value of fish landed of any port in England. Its boats range from big beam trawlers and crabbers to small open boats working Mount’s Bay.

Penlee RNLI says that in the most extreme conditions, its lifeboat has been called to support smaller lifeboats when they are towing larger vessels.

When the towing gets heavy

The station’s own call-outs over the past couple of years show what that looks like in practice.

In October 2025, a 20m tug with four people on board lost all power around nine miles south-south-east of Newlyn. With no lights, no navigation aids and no main engine, it was a hazard sitting in a busy shipping area. Ivan Ellen took it under tow and brought it into Newlyn at four to four and a half knots, running on low revs, over around two and a half hours.

Coxswain Patch Harvey said afterwards that despite the size and weight of the tug, the Severn towed it “safely and comfortably”.

In March 2026, an 18m fishing vessel with six crew lost its engine around 20 miles north of the Isles of Scilly. St Mary’s RNLI’s Severn, The Whiteheads, reached it first and towed it through the night in a southerly force 7 to 8 with a five metre swell. Ivan Ellen met them north-east of Wolf Rock and took over the tow, bringing the vessel into Newlyn after more than five hours at sea for the Penlee crew.

A month earlier, the year’s very first shout had followed the same pattern. Ivan Ellen headed around 20 nautical miles due south of Newlyn to take over a tow from the St Mary’s lifeboat.

In November 2023, St Ives RNLI’s Shannon class lifeboat was escorting a 50ft dive vessel that had been taking on water 15 miles north of St Ives. Ivan Ellen launched to meet them west of Carn Base. With the weather getting worse and the dive boat having lost all its electronics and lights, the Penlee coxswain put a tow line on and brought it into Newlyn.

And in September 2024, with gales forecast, Ivan Ellen towed a 47ft sailing ketch with complete steering failure from six miles south of Porthcurno back to Newlyn.

Big boat, close to home

Not every job is miles offshore.

On the night of 6 December 2025, the crew were sent to reports of someone in the water shouting for help off Penzance promenade. Ivan Ellen launched straight away given the conditions, a south-westerly force 5 to 6 with a three metre swell bouncing back off the sea wall.

The Y-boat went over the side, Penzance Coastguard’s cliff team spotted the man struggling to stay afloat, and the Y-boat crew pulled him out under the lifeboat’s floodlights. He was taken back to the big boat, wrapped in blankets and handed over to paramedics at Newlyn.

“They have definitely saved a life tonight,” said Patch.

Two hundred years in Mount’s Bay

Penlee’s crews have been saving lives in Mount’s Bay for 200 years. In that time they have been presented with 44 awards for gallantry.

On 31 October 2022, the station’s Severn class lifeboat went out in 100mph winds and seven metre waves and saved eight sailors. Patch was later awarded the RNLI Silver Medal for Gallantry for that rescue.

The station’s visitor centre in Newlyn is open every day from 10am to 4pm, and tells the story of the station and its lifeboats.

From tomorrow, Volunteer Spirit takes up the watch. If the 10 month timetable holds, Ivan Ellen should be back on her Newlyn mooring around late summer 2027.

📷Penlee's Severn class lifeboat Ivan Ellen (left) moored in Newlyn alongside relief Severn Volunteer Spirit. Credit: RNLI/Phil Monckton