This week, the Mandurah Mail stepped on board the ‘Spirit of Mandurah’ vessel with the local team at Mandurah Volunteer Marine Rescue (MVMR).
With skipper Paul Dehncke at the wheel, the experience provided an inside look at the training drills necessary for MVMR to perfect in order to carry out successful search and rescue operations in real life situations.
Before leaving the base on Breakwater Drive, the crew don their life jackets and conduct a short safety briefing.
Then it’s full steam ahead on the safest boat in the MVMR fleet – the ‘Spirit of Mandurah’.
We want people to enjoy our waterways and coastline but to do so safely.
- Nigel Haines
Decked out with all the latest technologies including radios and state-of-the-art computers, the vessel also boasts an impressive auto-pilot system.
The five-man crew gear up for their first drill – a search and rescue in the waters of Comet Bay.
MVMR spokesman Nigel Haines explained what the training involved and how it would be used in a real life situation.
“In this case, the guys will head north for half a mile at 10 knots so they work out how many minutes or seconds that is and time it on the stopwatch and then they head west for 200 metres and then turn back to head north and so on,” he said.
“In real life you would be doing this with six other boats and timing it and relaying that across the radio so everyone has to be in line and turn altogether – it’s quite specky actually.
“We could be doing this for up to up to eight hours at a time and that’s why it’s important to have two skippers on board to swap over.
“It will normally be silent on board as we search the water and we’ll usually have two people up top as well looking out.”
We could be doing [a search and rescue] for up to up to eight hours at a time.
- Nigel Haines
After the first drill, the crew take it in turns to help the skipper navigate to each improve their skills before a ‘man overboard’ scenario is thrown in at random.
Everyone instantly takes to their positions to ensure the flotation device, used as a dummy, gets back on board safely.
After two hours at sea and a number of other navigational drills, the team call it a day and head back to base.
Mr Haines said the Mandurah team were hoping to expand their search and rescue capabilities this year.
“We try to do this once or twice a week because what we want to do is get a couple of teams up to scratch so when we get called out, we’ve got plenty of guys who know how to do it and can put out a whole heap of boats.”
The crew also reminded skippers to take responsibility of their boats and passengers on the water to avoid needing MVMR assistance.
“We want people to enjoy our waterways and coastline but to do so safely,” Mr Haines said.
Follow Kaylee Meerton on Twitter, via @kayleemeerton.
Read more:
