The volunteers at SARA Newport depend on their 4x4 vehicles to transport the lifeboat and inland rescue boat to and from where they are needed. Not only do they tow the boats, but they have powerful winches which allow them to launch and recover the smaller boat almost anywhere. In 2018 the Newport Team responded to 22 emergency callouts across Gwent.

The crew are also a national declared asset - which means they are on standby to attend flood emergencies all over the country. In recent years they have responded to flood incidents in Devon, Yorkshire & Essex.

SARA is the second largest lifeboat organisation in the UK and unlike the RNLI, all members of the charity are volunteers, even the accountants and the secretaries.

The Newport Station's Landrover Discovery, known as SARA Mobile 1, is over 20 years old and it can no longer be relied upon as a front line vehicle. It was already old when it was given to SARA, and Newport inherited it from another station. Despite the crew's best efforts, it is at risk of breaking down on the way to a life-saving callout, which can come at any time.

The team is now raising money for a more modern replacement, which can carry all of the crew and their equipment, be used as an incident planning and as a welfare vehicle wherever it is needed, for the next 10 years or more.