We often get asked who decides which boat we send to a job, the coastguards initially take the radio or telephone call from the casualty and request the launch of the lifeboat from the Lifeboat Operations Manager or Launch Authority depending who is on call. Sometimes we get called direct at station from the casualty, we call the coastguard immediately and inform them, who then decide which boat to request, from a lifeboat station best equipped to deal with it ie: closest

The Launch authority accesses the weather, size and location of the casualty then release the boat to go on service, after all it is a bit pointless launching the Alb to a casualty close to the station when the job can easily be carried out by an Ilb, we are a charity and it costs more to launch the Alb than the Ilb, by the time we launch the Alb the Ilb could get there and back

So i hope this explains the  way we decide which boat we use when we are called out