A particularly photogenic building and location is the bright blue KNRM lifeboat station on the dike in Hindeloopen. The old lifeboat station dating from 1911 has become a national monument. In the times of the Zuiderzee, the KNRM would head out from Hindeloopen to save sailors from drowning.
The KNRM was originally founded in order to help sailors off the North Sea shores of the Netherlands, who were in danger. It was only early in the 20th century, that the lifeboat also served the Wadden Sea and the Zuiderzee coastline. Hindeloopen was one of the first lifeboat stations. The boathouse on the dike was built by Tjeerd Diekkes from Hindeloopen in 1911. The first rescue took place in 1919. In 1941, the hand-rown lifeboat was replaced by a motorised lifeboat. Once the Zuiderzee was closed off from the sea, the IJsselmeer lake became a very popular watersports area. Consequently, there is still plenty of rescue work to be done. A new lifeboat station has since been built in the direct vicinity of the old boathouse.
