The Lions Club of Warrnambool has catered for the Nippers state championships which have been held over the March long weekend for the past five years.

Lions club member Rob Askew that over the years they had cooked thousands of sausages, and egg and bacon rolls. “We’ve cooked hundreds of dozens of eggs, I couldn’t tell you how many – a lot, a real lot,” he said.

With about 1400 competitors on the beach along with parents and siblings, he said the club has had to cater for up to 5000 people each year. “The profits from that we’ve been able to share with the surf club,” he said.

Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club vice-president John McNeil said the boat would replace an older one from its fleet of four IRBs – something it aimed to do every three years.

“It’s used over the summer on a daily basis for patrolling the beach and just making sure the public are safe,” he said. “They’re integral in everything we do.

“It gives us a quick response, so if something’s happening we can get to the incident pretty quickly in these IRBs, and obviously being a brand new one is going to be a lot more reliable than the older ones.

“It’s always great when you get other community organisations supporting us, especially when you’ve got to find that sort of money to buy that kind of stuff, it doesn’t grow on trees.”