Hamble Lifeboat hopes to launch a new £200,000-plus state-of-the-art high-speed rescue craft in August.

The rescue service, which is one of the busiest in the country, is fitting out the new 30ft flier at its boathouse on Hamble foreshore.

Last year, the 24-hour inshore rescue service was given £100,000 by 75-year-old spinster Joan Hurrell towards the cost of a new lifeboat to replace the high-speed St Andrew IV rescue craft, which has carried out more than 1,000 mercy missions since 1991.

Miss Hurrell, who worked as a senior technician in a virus research unit in Cambridge, said it had always been her ambition to buy a lifeboat in memory of her late parents.

Hamble Lifeboat took delivery of the hull shortly before Christmas and is now fitting propulsion units to the new craft, which will bear the name John and Violet Hurrell.

Coxswain/mechanic Colin Olden said: "The fitting out is going on apace and we hope to launch in August.

"We are just in the process of selling St Andrew IV, which will give us the money for the new engines."

In the meantime, Hamble's reserve boat, the Harry Childs, will be used to make sure that the service - which is manned by unpaid volunteers who have already responded to 15 emergency calls this year - remains afloat.