It operates a Tamar-class all-weather boat (ALB) and an Atlantic 85 B Class inshore lifeboat (ILB).

The recently-formed Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNIPLS), as the RNLI was known at the time, was petitioned in August 1824 to provide a lifeboat for the Bideford area.

The Volunteer arrived towards the end of February 1825 and was initially kept in a barn at Appledore but in 1829 was soon moved into the nearby King's Watch House.

The new boathouse was completed in Watertown by the end of the year, which put the lifeboat half a mile nearer the sea than before.

The new station was needed to make it easier to reach ships in trouble on that side of the estuary but the crews always came from Appledore.

During World War I it became difficult to find the horses and men necessary for launching boats at Braunton Burrows, so it too was closed temporarily in 1918 and this became permanent the following year.

The boat house had a new crew room installed at first-floor level in 1980, but it was demolished in 2000 and a new station opened the following year.

The institution's Silver Medal was awarded to Owen Smith, William Brinksmead and Philip Guy for their part in this service.

[1] Thomas Day received a silver medal for leading the crew of the Volunteer when they rescued 6 people from a schooner on 29 November 1836.

It got back to shore and, after landing the rescued people, put to sea again with fresh crew but had to steer with an oar instead of the rudder.

The volunteers were prepared to make a third attempt but the tide was now low enough that the remaining crew could be brought off the wreck without a boat.

He and the two others who gone out both times the lifeboat launched (his son Joseph Cox Junior and John Kelly) received Silver Crosses of Merit from the Emperor of Austria.

Another volunteer, David Cross who had survived the first attempt to save the Pace, was drowned later that day while trying to take a rope out to the Leopard which had run aground further down the coast.

[7][6] Coxswain James Smallridge received a silver medal for rescuing seven people from the Nigretta after it ran aground at Braunton Sands in a gale on 5 November 1871.

George Pow, the second coxswain, was given a bronze medal for taking the lifeboat into heavy seas to rescue the three people on board the fishing boat Lee Bay on 11 January 1935.

He was finally awarded a silver medal after the Louisa Ann Hawker was launched into a northerly gale on 17 November 1962 to assist the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Green Ranger which had broken free from her tug and run aground on rocks near Hartland Point.

The lifeboat stood by for some time until it became clear that the crew had already been saved by breeches buoy, so it returned through the dangerous waters at the estuary mouth to its berth by the boat house.

Pavitt was also presented with the 'Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum' when he was part of the lifeboat's crew that took Dr Valentine to attend an injured person on the MV Manchester Merit.

The doctor had great difficulty in boarding the ship due to the 15 ft (4.6 m) swell and also received the 'Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum'.

[6] The George Gibson put to sea on 31 March 1994 when the local fishing boat Torridge Warrior was struggling through a gale with just one of its engines working.

The lifeboat reached the boat on the seaward side of the Bideford Bar but, due to the state of the tide and weather, had to tow her to Ilfracombe.

The Braunton Burrows boathouse of 1848 was built in wood 1 mi (1.6 km) north of the lighthouse at Airy Point.