Life boat conversion is a hobby which is not only constrained on marine vessels but actually originated on land based locomotives that where converted to perform different tasks than they were originally build for. Originally they solely were converted to perform different tasks but today they are mostly converted as a hobby or time pass and in rear cases to do tasks they were not originally build for.
The largest oil tanker in the world was a good example of a vessel converted to do a different task than it was originally built for was the largest vessel in the world named “Seawise Giant”. She was constructed 1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. And was also known by the names Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, and Knock Nevis, The vessel had a chaotic history and was even sank during the Iran/Iraq war after which she was rebuilt and changed owners over the years till 2004 when she was purchased by First Olsen Tankers Pte. Ltd., who converted it to a permanent mooring that would be used for oil storage on the Persian gulf after which she was sold to Singapore and final sent to India for sale as scrape.
This would be the best example of conversion of a vessel form one form of usage to another, today there are many vessel that have been converted to perform different tasks than they were originally built for. Nations like the US and Canada and many more which have many inland water ways that are used to transport cargo using Barges also have many tug boats that have been converted to push private barges from point A to B. barge owners purchase the tugs from ports authorities and make minor adjustments to equip them to push barges.
People with a passion to sail have by far been the biggest converters of marine vessels. This is due to the reason that new marine vessels carry a huge tag price and many people cannot afford to buy them but could afford to purchase old used vessels since they are cheaper. So they would rather purchase the old Lifeboat and make conversions to the interior to suite their taste. People convert old marine fire fighters and life boats that many people consider worthless into spectacular floating homes or holiday resorts. This conversion is considered an art that people have for converting old and worthless to good and expensive.
The human mind is genetically build to be creative and this can be seen by the way we take advantage of every resource we have or alter thing from their original state to suite our needs, lifeboat conversions in to works of art is one of these innovative ways, that is not only happening in the marine vessel but on most natural and manmade things that exist around us. The conversions are set to continue in to the distant future as they began since the down of humanity and aren’t expected to cease till the end.