For the last two weeks Ramsey lifeboat crew has spent nearly every evening sharpening their navigational and radar skills. The training included an exercise at sea where the crew members could demonstrate their proficiency. The course was expertly taught by Peter White, who has been an RNLI Mobile Training Unit instructor for the last 5 years, having previously served in the Royal Navy for 26 years. The RNLI acknowledges that its crew members are volunteers and its mobile training units provide professional and specialist training for lifeboat crew members with minimal disruption to work and family commitments. The RNLI places considerable emphasis on the training of its volunteers. As part of the radar and navigation course, training simulators replicate equipment on board the lifeboat. This enables not only more recent crew members to receive the training they require to confidently and effectively carry out the charity’s work of saving lives at sea but also allows more experienced crew members to keep their skills up to date. Because space is limited at the lifeboat-house, classroom training was facilitated by the Isle of Man Harbours Division who, for the duration of the course, kindly permitted the use of the Ramsey harbour keepers office. During training crew members sat at navigation stations with simulated on-screen views as if in the wheelhouse whilst at sea. Real-time navigation and radar exercises were carried out utilising plotting and radar equipment which functioned in the same way as that on the lifeboat. In addition to replicating radar and navigation systems on the lifeboat, the training also follows the Royal Yachting Association syllabus. From his instructors vantage point Peter could change sea and weather conditions and even bring about heavy fog. Vessels appeared on the radar and were replicated in a wheelhouse view which changed according to the speed of the lifeboat. During these classroom sessions crew members were trained to locate and identify simulated casualties. In the second week the crew were able to demonstrate the skills they had acquired in exercises afloat. At the end of the two weeks participating crew members were presented with their competency certificates. Wayne Hargrave, Lifeboat Training Co-ordinator for Ramsey, observed “The volunteer ethos is incredibly strong here at Ramsey lifeboat station, as indeed it is throughout the RNLI. Over the last two weeks our crew, after long days at work, have willingly given their time to do this training. They have worked extremely hard and even did their homework!.” Ends