Jack Schneider wrote in
7.124:

Are the men who man the SAR vessles paid or volunteers in your area?


Here the men (and also women) are mostly volunteers. They have some
skippers who are in full-time paid service (in case of Den Helder for
instance) but the rest of the crew is volunteer. They mostly have regular
jobs and can be called to action any time of the day, in which case they
have to be on station within a certain amount of time.

Once every year the KNRM (Royal Netherlands Lifeboat Association) organises
a "bosses -day". The employers of the volunteers are then invited to thank
them for enabling their personel to volunteer.

More info: http://www.knrm.nl/english/