To achieve a safe launch of some types of land-based lifeboats in bad weather and difficult sea conditions, the lifeboat and slipway are designed so that the lifeboat slides down a relatively steep steel slip under gravity. It is winched back up afterward.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution in the United Kingdom currently operates three different classes of lifeboat from its slipways: the Tyne, Mersey and, most recently, the Tamar.