Sunshine Coast ESS Training Assistance
Crusader 1 and our team here at Sunshine Coast Afloat recently had the pleasure of assisting a bunch of great guys from Hall Engineering out into the Mooloolaba Bay to participate in the practical component of their Elements of Shipboard Safety (ESS) course with Sea School.
This course qualifies a person to work as a deckhand on a commercial vessel. It is also a prerequisite for anyone applying for a certificate of competency as Master/Skipper or Engineer of a commercial vessel.
It is also suitable for anyone who is embarking upon a career at sea and participants include recreational boat owners, volunteer crew, sailing club members, competitive sailors, and is a compulsory OHS unit for GPH Deckhands, Coxswains, Engineers and Masters.
The knowledge gained from doing this sort of course is valuable even if you own a boat or partake in boating just in a recreational sense on a regular basis.
The course includes face-to-face teaching in the classroom as well as demonstrations putting on a life jacket, use of the EPIRB, safety equipment checks, crew drills, how to use a fire extinguisher and line handling basics, and the essentials in the grab bag. Understanding the key safety elements aboard commercial (and hopefully recreational) vessels are looking at in exact detail. Possibly even more essential is the practical experience gained which is obviously of massive benefit should an emergency ever arise out at sea. Even the more simple areas such as abandoning ship with a life jacket on are covered.
During the in-water sea survival drills and tasks, the trainer will activate a real life raft and you will be involved in many exercises relating to abandon ship scenarios. This may all look and appear like fun judging by the smiles on everyone’s faces, but it certainly has its challenges as anyone would contest to that has had to climb into a life raft at sea.
