A historic lifeboat was docked in Weymouth Harbour at the weekend.

Laura Moncur, which is a former Buckie lifeboat, was stationed outside the Harbour Master’s office on Saturday.

Residents and visitors alike were given the opportunity to go aboard in return for a donation to Weymouth Lifeboat Station.

Laura Moncur was built in 1960 and is a 47’ Watson Class Motor Lifeboat. It was delivered to RNLI Buckie (North East Scotland) in June 1961 at a cost of over £35,000. The largest amount of the money was donated by Miss Laura Moncur, hence its name.

The lifeboat has been used by the RNLI for more than 60 years, and it has been launched for service on 78 occasions and helped to save 47 lives.

Mark Waltham purchased the boat in 2012, but it wasn’t until 2015 that it was fully repaired and put back into the water.

Mr Waltham is now taking the boat around the country to raise money for the RNLI and its lifeboat stations, with Weymouth being the first stop.

He said: “I am going around raising money for the RNLI. It’s run properly by local people. They give up their time to save lives at sea and I believe in what they do.

“I hope I should never have to call them, but it’s nice to know they’re there and it’s a free service.”

Teresa Drage, fundraising and events officer at Weymouth Lifeboat Station said: “I was in contact with Mark and we arranged the visit with the harbour master. It’s been absolutely brilliant. I watched it arrive during the evening which was quite magical.

“It’s nice for people to be able to have a chance to see an old-fashioned lifeboat restored to its former glory.”

As well as giving people the chance to go aboard the boat to look around, Mr Waltham is taking people out to sea on the boat in return for a donation to the RNLI.

He said he wanted to thank Andy Alcock, for giving him some discounted diesel, because of the donations being made to the RNLI.

When not attending events, the boat is moored on the Heritage Quay in Lowestoft.