5 minute read
ACHIEVING MORE, WORKING TOGETHER
Cross-training between stations enhances crew competency and builds stronger relationships between crew members. Cherelle Leong explains why these inter-station exercises are more important than ever.
It’s not unusual in major operations for multiple stations to be activated to ensure that there are adequate resources available. During these operations, rescue vessels may perform different functions, working together under the on-scene commander, who is usually the coxswain of the largest vessel on the callout. This is achieved without much effort, because for decades flanking stations have trained together. This cross-station training has always been a fairly informal arrangement but is now proving to be more important than ever.
When a formal training department was set up by NSRI head office, the objective was to standardise training and ensure that all crew achieve similar levels of competency in order to be operational. The training department now has six full-time trainers who spend their days (and often their nights) travelling to various regions in South Africa to ensure that all volunteers are taught the core skills essential to rescue work. When trainee coxswains are assessed, it’s done against criteria that will enable them to operate with confidence in any environment.
The challenge, however, is that bases have specific areas of operation with vessels best suited to the conditions and area they operate in. Station 26 (Kommetjie), for example, is very comfortable operating in the surf as that’s their launch area, but they don’t have a harbour in which to practise close-quarter manoeuvring. So crew often travel north to Station 8 (Hout Bay) in order to do so. For Station 2 (Bakoven), it’s the same. These two stations’ largest vessels are 6.5m RIBs, ideal for launching through surf and acting as support boats during towing operations. Yet when their Class 3 coxswains are assessed, they have to prove themselves competent in additional skills such as pacing and rafting up alongside larger vessels, and being able to manoeuvre them into a mooring. These are difficult to learn if your station only operates with one vessel – as is the case for Bakoven.
The natural solution is to embed cross-station training and this is something that station commanders have been very focused on – ensuring that all trainee coxswains get to practise and hone their skills in conditions similar to what they’ll be assessed in. But it goes beyond this. Each station has slightly different ways of operating. They constantly seek to find better ways of doing things, whether it’s procedures for extricating casualties off rocks or picking them up in a surf zone. This is where cross-station training really comes to the fore. Crew and coxswains alike learn from one another and get exposed to working in different environments, which has immense value. For example: Hout Bay operates three rescue vessels, the smallest of which is a JetRIB, used for inshore operations. Even though crew launch from Hout Bay Harbour, Class 4 coxswains have to have a level of competency operating in the surf. To maintain this competency, they regularly train at Station 16 (Strandfontein) and have even travelled as far afield as Station 23 (Wilderness). Both of these stations are known for their high level of physical fitness and excellent inter-crew communications, not to mention surf competency. Operating in unfamiliar surf conditions puts their skills to the test and it’s a hugely valuable learning experience. Hout Bay is only too happy to return the favour.
Strandfontein rescue base is isolated and has frequently been the unfortunate victim of criminal activity. For this reason, as well as being a surf launch station, it doesn’t operate at night. Yet, to be certified, trainee coxswains still have to log a certain number of night hours. They can achieve this at Hout Bay, where they join the crew for routine night exercises and gain valuable experience in operating at sea at night.
Similarly, as the Class 1 vessels are upgraded to ORCs, there’s a need to train crew and coxswains on the specifics of the new vessel. The systems are more advanced and very different to what crew are used to. Of Cape Town’s three Class 1 stations, two are already operating ORCs, namely Station 10 (Simon’s Town) and Station 3 (Table Bay) and this has provided Hout Bay crew and coxswains with an opportunity to train on and familiarise themselves with the ORC. This has the benefit that when the station eventually gets delivery of the ORC, the crew will already be familiar with its operation.
Training in environments and with crew that are familiar is essential, but it’s even more beneficial to move out of that comfort zone sometimes. As stations continue to coordinate training sessions, crew competency is enhanced and stronger relationships are built. You never know what you’ll face when there’s a callout, but you do know you can trust the crew around you.
