Blyth All-Weather Lifeboat chairman and local millionaire Barry Elliot is worried that the latest batch of volunteer recruits aren't up to the job. Barry put the money up for the boat but he leaves the rescuing to a dedicated volunteer crew, backed up by feisty fund-raising women who stick to the shore. Barry wants to shake up the lifeboat and make the crew into a slick, professional organisation to rival the RNLI. But while the RNLI are 'the world leaders in saving lives at sea' and have their own training school and specialist engineers, the Blyth All-Weather Lifeboat is a unique institution of roughly 30 unpaid crew and fundraisers who have to scrimp and save to raise every penny that keeps the boat on the water and out on rescues.