.... 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 ).

Here are John and Mat rescuing our talkative friend. You will notice Mat's use of the cutting edge first aid technique of stomping on the casualties legs. This is done to stimulate blood flow as a form of resuscitation!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmrG_0xCnN8

BTW - all the clips after no. 2 say "night time cruising" at about 2mins... even the daytime ones!

Still think we should have thrown Nathan overboard for the rescue practice!

Ian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ry6iyrMRgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQwg7wEDhZA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4Wfso3eiGI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tWrQFSvESc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5aNWv29CwQ