About the Support Association “Life-Boats”. - 10th anniversary of the launch. I would like to say a little about the first years of the Support Association Life - Boats In 2012, a group of people mainly from the Fredericia area, led by Inger Davidsen and her husband Ole Davidsen, established `The Independent Institution Life-Boats´. The purpose of the institution was to raise funds for the planned sailing sculpture boats. Inger Davidsen quickly saw that in addition to helping to raise funds, a large and popular support had to be established to realize Benthe's visionary art project. So she took the initiative to form a support association that would have local roots. Inger Davidsen, Marianne Ilkjær and I spoke on various occasions in Mygdal about how it could be approached. On January 31, 2013, we met with the aim of establishing the “Support Association Life-Boats”, which, in addition to the artist’s visions and dreams, at that time consisted of a sculpture boat “Længsel” that had been started. Both Marianne and I had followed the work in Mygdal for a long time, and were both enthusiastic about the project, and we both came to Mygdal regularly. Subsequently, the three self-appointed members of the association contacted a number of additional people who were known to have a large network, in addition to each having resources and experience. Quite quickly, there were commitments from nine people who wanted to stand as members of the support association’s provisional board. The provisional board prepared a proposal for statutes. The purpose of the association was to support the project `Life-Boats´, not by raising money, which was the task of the independent institution, but by gathering support for the project. This created the basis for convening and holding the founding general meeting, which was held on May 17, 2013. The statutes were approved and the provisional board was elected. The support association was thus a reality. The board subsequently elected me as chairman. One of the board's first tasks was to get some members. During the first year, around 150 had signed up for membership. The number of members grew over time to almost 300 in 2018. The reasons for signing up for membership and becoming a volunteer, both as a board member and an ordinary member, have been many, but common to all has been the fascination with and belief in the artist's vision. The experience of being together about something, of being together to create something, has also been a driving force for most. The vision sprouted and revealed itself at the legendary `Casting Parties', of which the support association was a large part. At the three castings, which were called casting parties, there have been over 100 volunteers who have participated over the 3-4 days that each casting has lasted. A casting party was first and foremost a large practical piece of work that had to be carried out. It was the way it was done that made the days a party. It was the experience of being part of a large working community, meeting the many people with widely different backgrounds, ages, professions, places of residence and nationality, as well as everything else that happened alongside the work itself, that made the casting parties something special. The support association has also been involved in organizing the trips in 2016 and 2017, and many of the volunteers who participated in the trips were recruited through the association. The book LIFE-BOATS, from dream to dream, was completed in 2018, and was written at the initiative of the Support Association. The book is a documentation of the entire process, both the artistic, the organizational and the practical work at the workshop in Mygdal. When the ships in 2018 had entered the sea well and were well on their way to new and different adventures and challenges, there were several on the board who wanted to quit, including myself, but fortunately others stepped in.