.... stomping on the casualties legs
Still think we should have thrown Nathan overboard for the rescue practice!
.. lucky it wasn't Nathan then
The dummy was an old boiler suit stuffed with a duvet - it had to be "drowned" (i.e held under the water!) for a bit to get it properly saturated and heavy.
The practice actually went better than I was expecting - probably the hardest bit is stopping alongside without colliding with the casualty or being too far away to reach them. I had though that stability might be a problem when lifting out of the water however, the craft tipping over reduces the lift height and makes it a lot easier.
Pity one of the "crew" wasn't wearing a life jacket
Luckily, the water was only about a metre deep and the backup craft had already practiced the "recovery" (and it's well known that teenagers are invulnerable to the hazards that affect others
).