St Ives Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) search and rescue operations at St Ives, Cornwall in the United Kingdom. The first lifeboat was built for the town in 1840 and the present boathouse was opened in 1994. It operates a all weather boat (AWB) and a inshore lifeboat (ILB). History St Ives is an historic fishing port in west Cornwall and offers a sheltered harbour for ships in the open waters of the Western Approaches. On 24 December 1838 the schooner Rival was trying to enter the harbour in a gale but came to grief on one of its piers; despite lacking proper rescue boats and equipment five people were saved after much courage and effort by the people ashore. A meeting was held and it was decided that a proper lifeboat should be built for the town. Francis Adams, a local man, had recently won a prize from the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society for designing a double-ended, self-righting lifeboat, and he was commissioned to now build one. The Hope entered service in 1840, assisting the Mary Ann of Poole during a storm on 7 April. Hope had fallen out of use by 1860 so the following year the RNLI opened a new lifeboat station at Porthgwidden beach. It proved to be a difficult site to launch from and so in 1867 it was closed. It has since been used as a store. The replacement boat house was situated in Fore Street. This was used until 1911 when a new house was built on The Quay. Nearby Hayle Lifeboat Station closed in 1920. The St Ives boat now covered a larger area, but this was made easier in 1933 with the arrival of a first motor lifeboat. In 1964 an ILB was stationed at St Ives which was kept in a building in the Sloop Car Park on West Hill. These two boat houses were closed in 1993 when a new purpose-built house was opened at the landward end of West Pier. In 2015 the 1993 boathouse was modified for the new Shannon class lifeboat and its Supacat launching rig. The work involved widening the main doorway, installation of a new fuel tank and upgrading of crew facilities. Wrecks On 31 January 1938 the motor lifeboat Caroline Parsons went out in aid of the SS Alba. 23 people were rescued but as the lifeboat