The IMRF’s Basic Rescue Boat Operator Manual, together with the accompanying Rescue Boat Operator Search Cards, provides recommended best practice for any organisation looking at introducing basic training in Rescue Boat SAR operations.

Following the recent Basic Rescue Boat Operator Manual webinar (listen again here - (Members Only)), we asked Robin Jenkins, CEO, Atlantic Pacific International Rescue and IMRF member, how his organisation uses the IMRF Basic Rescue Boat Operator Manual. 

Atlantic Pacific International Rescue is an NGO that provides lifeboats and trained crew to areas of need. Unsurprisingly, training is central to everything we do.  

Our staff will train together as often as once a week when we are working with students at UWC of the Atlantic in South Wales.

We’re opening a new training facility in the Royal Docks London and will provide training for a number of different cohorts there.

For example, we will start by delivering a bespoke training programme for the German NGO, Sea Watch for their new crews.

We also run an intensive training course once a year through our summer school programme (although sadly this and last years’ courses have had to be cancelled because of the global pandemic).  

Our core team of instructors and our course development team meet on a weekly basis to develop the training materials and procedures.

This team is made up of experts from across the world of SAR, many of whom are experienced SAR professionals with the RNLI or other SAR organisations.

In each case, we will be using the IMRF Basic Rescue Boat Operators Manual as the central training resource and are extremely grateful for all the work that has gone into developing this valuable resource.

Our ambition at Atlantic Pacific is to work with a common code of practice and to ensure that there is parity within the SAR at sea community.

Participants on our training courses are often seeking an opportunity to volunteer with a number of International SAR organisations and we believe that by following a common process, there will be greater effectiveness in the field.

Our intention is to create competent crew, but it is essential to start with the basics.

At the moment, we are working on programmes to introduce prospective rescue crew to the essential elements of working onboard a rescue vessel. 

In this context, the IMRF Basic Rescue Boat Operator Manual has provided us with a very useful code to follow.

Our training courses have placed this manual at the centre of our course material and we will continue to use it as a guide throughout our organizational development.

The contents of the manual are both thorough and logical and it is extremely easy to use.

Moving forward, we will be incorporating the supporting lesson plans into the very core of our training programmes and we use the Search Check Cards throughout our operations, carrying them on all our training vessels.

Looking to the future, we would like to see the manual translated into different languages, particularly Japanese as we have an operational lifeboat station in the north of the country, but other languages too as it would help us all to work more effectively alongside each other.

I think there would be space for other similar manuals to deal with more detailed activities, such as: mass casualty rescue, or types of rescue equipment, such publications would be really useful and could include complimentary material.

If the basic manual is used as a ‘root’ to other manuals, I believe that any organisation adopting it would benefit enormously. 

Atlantic Pacific is a very young organisation but our ambition is to work globally, reducing the numbers of deaths caused by drowning, and we are confident that this manual will allow us to do this efficiently and to a very high standard, following a universal united approach and helping to establish a common code of practice.

The IMRF Basic SAR Manual provides an obvious method of delivering an effective method of SAR provision and we will continue to place it at the centre of everything that we do. 

To download your copy of the IMRF Basic Rescue Boat Manual, please go to the “Members Only” section of our website.

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Click here to read more about the IMRF Basic Rescue Boat Manual.