The weather conditions were postcard perfect with a total of 16 people undertaking the crew and drivers course from the Far South Coast Branch (Batemans Bay to Pambula).

Tony Rettke from the Tathra SLSC was the trainer and did a great job with everyone.

The clubbies had to perform many scenario's including getting into vessel from standing start in deep water, pulling conscious and unconscious victims into the vessel, rolling the duck over and then getting it back to upright (by standing on the overturned hull and pulling over with a rope), acting as an anchor holding onto bow rope and keeping IRB straight, and negotiating waves and side swells.

Late in the day, one of the craft flipped in the waves providing Mr Rettke the opportunity to show how an outboard was flushed and restored for future use.

All in all, everyone had lots of fun learning lots about the valuable rescue vessels.

At one stage we had all five IRB's out the back and the whales came through. Magical!

So now qualified, the new crewpersons can undertake their crew duties on patrol and also work towards gaining their drivers certificate.

Congrats to Glen Collins, Stan Gorton, Shelby Fitzhardinge, Pip Thorn, Lisa Davis, Lin Wilton, Ange O'Brien, Sham Eichmann, Mark Rogerson and John Davis.