Largs lifeboat volunteers always like to look on the bright side of life, and were on hand to accept a donation for the Lifeboat fund thanks to a new joke book.

A collection of funny quips and comedy lines on a marine theme has resulted in a handsome donation from the Government of the Netherlands to the Scottish Government’s official charity, The Lifeboat Fund.

Marine Scotland, the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate, produced the ‘Marine Joke Book’ last December as a fund-raising project for Civil Service charity, The Lifeboat Fund.

In its 150th Anniversary year, the Fund is seeking to raise £1.1 million towards the cost of a RNLI Shannon class lifeboat. This will be the 53rd vessel funded by UK Civil Servants since The Lifeboat Fund was set up in 1866.

Colleagues in the Dutch Government are working with Marine Scotland on two EU-funded projects designed to promote effective marine planning in shared European sea areas. On being given a copy of the Marine Joke Book at a meeting in Edinburgh, they realised its potential for engaging stakeholders in marine matters. A special order for an additional 250 copies was printed by APS Group (Scotland) Ltd, who produced the original as a gift to the charity in its Anniversary year, and shipped to The Hague last week in return for a Dutch donation of £500 to The Lifeboat Fund. The books will be distributed at meetings across the Netherlands and other North Sea states over the next two years as part of the NorthSEE Interreg project.

Lodewijk Abspoel of the NL Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and Xander Keijser of the Rijkswaterstaat stopped off at Largs RNLI station to officially hand over the donation to Dave Hewitt, the RNLI’s Operations Manager. “The Dutch Government is very pleased to be able to make this contribution to The Lifeboat Fund and thanks everyone who has made it possible. We look forward to taking copies of the Joke Book with us as we work on the NorthSEE Interreg project with Marine Scotland and other partners, bringing the North Sea community closer together.” said Mr. Abspoel.

Alistair Busson of The APS Group said, “We are proud to have supported this idea and delighted that our books will be used from Norway to Belgium to break the ice at marine planning events. We just hope that the jokes travel well across the North Sea and nothing is lost in translation!”