A history-making parade of five veteran all-weather lifeboats was one of the highlights of RNLI Angle's open day on Saturday. And for one of the lifeboats it was a poignant return to the Milford Haven Waterway. The Watson class lifeboat Richard Vernon and Mary Garforth of Leeds served at Angle from 1957 to 1987. She is now privately owned and has been painstakingly restored to her former glory. There was a steady flow of visitors to the open day. They were able to meet crew members, tour the £1.2m boathouse, with its spectacular views over the Milford Haven Waterway, and board the £2.6m all-weather state-of-the-art Tamar class lifeboat Peter and Lesley-Jane Nicholson. She is on relief duty at Angle while the station's Tamar Mark Mason undergoes modifications. Also attracting a great deal of interest was the D class inshore lifeboat Richard John Talbot Hillier. Visitors were welcomed by lifeboat operations manager John Allen-Mirehouse and coxswain Lewis Creese, and Welsh cakes, tea and coffee were served by Pembroke Ladies Lifeboat Guild members. They were Rosie Allen-Mirehouse (Guild president and RNLI Angle deputy launching authority), Daphne Bush (Guild chairman and press officer) and Emma Geear. After the open day, a number of visitors returned to the boathouse to see the Tamar launched to join the parade of historic lifeboats. Among the volunteer crew members on board the Tamar was second coxswain Danny Richards, who has served in three of Angle's own lifeboats - the Richard Vernon and Mary Garforth of Leeds; her successor, the Tyne class The Lady Rank (1987 to 2008), and the present Tamar class Mark Mason, as well as relief lifeboats based at the station. The oldest lifeboat in the parade was the Liverpool class The Always Ready, which was built in 1933 and served at the Runswick station, North Yorkshire, until 1954. Another Liverpool class lifeboat was The Chieftain, built in 1948 and on station at Barmouth from 1949 to 1982. There were two Watson class lifeboats on display - the ex-Angle lifeboat Richard Vernon and Mary Garforth of Leeds, which had also served at Wicklow from 1987 to 1988, and the Pentland, which was at Thurso, Scotland, from 1957 to 1970, The Mumbles from 1974 to 1985, and Workington, Cumbria, from 1986 to 1990. The fifth on parade was the Tyne class Mary Irene Millar, built in 1989 and serving at Portpatrick, Scotland, up to 2011. All the former lifeboats are privately owned and based in the Portishead and Bristol areas. This year's open day coincided with Angle Regatta and the Tamar led the veteran lifeboats into Angle Bay to the delight of the crowds lining the shore outside the Old Point House. RNLI Angle has been saving lives at sea since 1868, when the first lifeboat Katherine - donated by the Bradford philanthropist Titus Salt - went into service.