Oban Lifeboat is one of the busiest lifeboats in Scotland and in 1998 was the first All Weather Lifeboat to record 102 launches. Since its inception in 1972 it has been called to give assistance on over 1500 occasions. The annual number of call outs is approximately 60.

Around one third of the services for Oban lifeboat are Med-Evacs (Medical Evacuations) from the adjacent islands – primarily from Mull. Depending on the condition of the patient and the availability of other transport (for example ferries and aircraft), the local GP will request for the lifeboat to effect a transfer to the hospital in Oban. Often the crew are not paged on these occasions as launching isn’t always immediate but timed such that the lifeboat’s arrival at the designated transfer point coincides with the arrival of the ambulance.

Occasionally Oban lifeboat has been requested to transfer pregnant women who have unexpectedly gone into labour. In these case we are accompanied by a midwife and on three occassions they have delivered the baby onboard. Read the stories section for more details.

The Oban area is very popular area for diving because of the variety of dive sites and the relatively sheltered water. A consequence of the great number of divers in the area is that Oban lifeboat is often called to assist with divers who get into difficulties with decompression illness – commonly referred to as the bends. Bends cases are transferred to the hyperbaric unit at Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, 4 miles north of Oban, where divers can be treated. This kind of service accounts for between 10 and 20% of all shouts.