EAST Training 2025

Here at EAST we take our training sessions very seriously and have combined our various training activities into one full day and is mandatory for all EAST volunteers who are involved with our sailing activities. Our training includes the safe management of the pontoon area where we often have sailors in wheelchairs that need to be safely brought down to the pontoon and hoisted onboard our boats, and where there is a higher risk of anyone (including us) entering the water in the marina. A lifejacket is a mandatory requirement when on the pontoon, so these with operate automatically when hitting the water ensuring the person is face up; however you will appreciate that anyone in the water will become very heavy one their clothing is wet, so knowing how the retrieve someone from the water is an essential skill. Our annual training ensures we have the skills and knowledge in place if an incident was to occur.

EAST volunteers undergoing hoist training on the pontoon. A volunteer is lowered into a special seat onboard a Sonar.

Our training aid has been dropped into the water for recovery.

The casualty has now been secured with a boat hook and brought towards the main pontoon for recovery

Two members of the EAST team preprae to lift the casualty from the water.

The casualty has been recovered from the water and secured on the pontoon.

A "casualty" is recovered from the water.

We also have been refreshing our Man Overboard procedures out on the river using our safety powerboats to recover our training aid from the water using specialised recovery equipment. Meanwhile we have also been refreshing our keelboat procedures in the even that someone should enter the water as we don't often heave too or take mooring buoy's as part of our routine sailing sessions. The coordination between the keelboat and safety boat is vital in ensuring a positive outcome in the event we should have a man overboard scenario.

Those who have undertaken one of these courses have found them to be highly valuable, and we look forward to the 2025 sailing season without any incidents!

We have two powered safety boats at EAST, and here "EAST Support" deploys the recovery cradle to retrieve a training aid representing a human body from the water.