
Sea Survival Training Day
With Summer just on our doorstep, some of our Ventures and Scouters unpacked the liferafts and put on their wetsuits for a great day of practical training rehearsing some of the essential boating safety equipment.
Lifejackets and flares are just part of the normal inventory, thankfully they are rarely needed but as such can often be taken for granted or misused in a real emergency.
The Sea Survival Training Day gives members an excellent opportunity to use some of this equipment and become better prepared should a real emergency ever arise.
Scouts had an in-depth discussion on different types of lifejackets and their uses + ancillary equipment, examined the contents of an emergency grab-bag such as VHF, EPIRB and PLBs.
Some live flare demos for an opportunity to feel, hear, smell and see what happens when a real flare goes off.
And finally jumped into the water for some wet-drills including automatic lifejacket inflation, jumping from a height, protection of airways from sea swell, rescue swimming techniques with lifejackets and finally launch, recovery and sealing a liferaft.
Big thanks to our Offshore Yachtmasters and DFB Swift-Water Rescue Technicians for sharing their knowledge.