9th December 2010 CQI Wessex - RNLI Poole site visit

RNLI Poole site visit Thursday 9th December 2010 - including tour of Lifeboat & Sea Survival Centre - with Colin Old and colleagues

The site visit for our members on 9 December 2010 was a very good one. First there was a tour round a Lifeboat with Will Sandland from RNLI, this was enjoyed by those members who could attend earlier at 6pm.

This was followed by a tour round the Sea Survival Centre in the RNLI College, with Graham Ireland. This took members into the simulation room, where people train to deal with situations at sea, it prepares them and allows them to see what happens and are then guided to what needs to be done. The tour also took us into the Training Pool, where again training is done with different water conditions (waves) and boats turning upside down, having to hold onto a person being rescued while swimming, and also dealing with this all in complete darkness. Then we went into the maintenance areas, where engines are dismantled and serviced or repaired, bodies of lifeboats are repainted. With a number of different types of lifeboat, including hovercraft, the knowledge needed is vast, and all the training for this is done at the RNLI College.

The latter part of the site visit was with a Mayday video showing some example rescues done by the RNLI. For a snippet from this video click here  

This was followed by a presentation by Colin Old and Ian Wood, showing how using Nimbus software, they have set up their processes in conjunction with all the people involved in them - a good insight into what goes on at the RNLI and enjoyed and appreciated by all who attended. For an abridged copy of this presentation click here