QUALIFIED CREW INTENSIVE COURSE

Recently, I attended the Coastguard Qualified Crew Intensive Course.

The purpose of the course is an intensive, fully focused practical course where training can be revisited and fine-tuned prior to completing the operational practical assessment.

Much like a ‘finishing school’, it provided an intensive week of training and review of all the skills, knowledge and practical training we receive over your recruitment, deckhand and operational training stages. With the incentive that at the end of the course you may be offered an assessment to become ‘Qualified’.

The course included 8 wonderful coastguard volunteers from around the country merging at the Auckland Marine Rescue Centre at Mechanics Bay. This is the home of the Coastguard Operations Centre, Auckland Coastguard, and the Maritime Police Unit.

We set up home there for a week and immersed ourselves into everything Coastguard. This was always going to be a very practical course, and it saw us balance classroom sessions with nearly 50hrs on the water

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With the 8 of us divided into 2 teams, each with a dedicated Senior Instructor and allocated a vessel for the week. ‘Tirikawa’ was to be my home for the week.

The week started on Sun afternoon where we all met and had a debrief of how the course and week would run. Then it was down to the boats to carry out a boat familiarisation followed by the first of many pre-departure/start up checks. It was suggested, wisely, we head back for an early night.

Just before we left, we were told that each morning we would present a weather report for the team. The report had to include the wind, tides, moon and sun rise and set, rainfall, visibility, temp/UV, Notice to Mariners (found on the AT website) and any shipping movements on that day. So much for an early night.

Monday morning and we headed out for the day on the vessel, today’s focus was on boat handling and control, coming along side (a wharf or vessel, utilizing a spring line) basic navigation and emergency procedures. This became a common theme for the week. Most of the day was spent rotating around the different functions on the vessel allowing time for us to get comfortable and familiar with the boat, while the instructor started assessing our capabilities. 

As a treat, especially for those who had travelled from outside of Auckland, that evening we went out to experience the ‘Nights Lights’ of the harbour. To experience the harbour on the water and at night is unique experience. Understanding the navigational lights and the lights on other vessels moving around the harbour can be a challenge, especially with the distraction of NZ’s largest city all lit up in the background.

Tuesday, and today's focus was on several specific skills including anchoring the vessel, setting a course to a specific Latitude/Longitude waypoint and then navigating the vessel demonstrating close loop communication.

Tonight’s challenge was a circumnavigation of Rangitoto Is /Motutapu Is, through the Rakino Channel and back to AMRC. This provided an opportunity to work on our radar skills, particularly, as we headed back towards North Head and into the busy harbour.

We did have a treat that night as we watched ‘Sparky’ (The electric Tugboat) maneuver a large ship alongside the wharf.

Wednesday and Thursday.  The next two days saw us on the water for most of the day,

working on CQM (close quarter maneuvers). A skill especially important for those of us that regularly return vessels to marinas, like Gulf Harbour or up the Weiti River. We then spent time replicating someone lost in the water. This included navigating and helming several different search patterns and fine tuning the techniques to retrieve someone from the water and back to safety. This provided us an opportunity to utilize boat control

and our First Aid training. And a visit from some of the Gulfs amazing marine life.

Thursday morning, we spent time practicing the important skill of towing and barging a vessel. We often must tow a vessel back to their home mooring or boat ramp, when we get close to this destination we will swap from towing to coming along side and attach barge lines for the final part of the journey. This requires a great deal of boat control and teamwork, especially in tricky weather conditions.

In addition to the practical tasks, time was spent reviewing the fundamentals of good seamanship including, the navigation markers and beacons (and light patterns), the give way ‘rules of the road’ at sea, the 5 knot rule, the safety equipment on the vessel (the different Flares, how a EPIRB works, what’s in your grab bag, how does your PFD work, using the VHF for Trip Reports and ‘Sit Rep’s’, making a distress call, taking bearing with a handheld compass and radar, and then transferring them onto a chart)

A big couple of days, rewarded on the Thursday night with a trip on the Police Boat Deodar. A fascinating couple of hours spent with the crew discussing the policing of the waters around the Huraki Gulf.

Friday was the final morning for those that needed to fine tune their skills before the assessment in the afternoon.

The assessments were a series of tasks/knowledge we had covered during the Deckhand and qualified training phase. These were conducted without the help of the team on the boat. Fair to say, a more pressurised environment closer to what can be expected on a real ‘tasking’.

The assessment took over 3hrs. Two completed it on Friday afternoon, while the other 2 completed theirs on Sat morning. If you were not being assessed, you were quiet/helpful deckhands there to support those being assessed. (Hard when you’ve worked as a team all week)

Saturday morning saw the completion of the Assessments, followed by a team lunch, the final boat closedown and farewells.

What an amazing week. To meet fellow volunteers with a passion to help and keep boaties safe, while revisiting and developing skills both on and off the water.

Yes, it was exhausting and challenging, but that’s what makes achieving your goal so satisfying. A huge thank you must go to our team at Coastguard Hibiscus, the standard of training here on the coast is simply second to none and their willingness to support me before the course was truly outstanding.

Robbie Parrish

Qualified Crew