Are you fit, have boating experience, possess a PCOC card and have a desire to help other mariners?
Are you able to make the significant time commitment to attend our intensive training program and be on call at least five days a month?
If so, consider joining our crew of volunteer marine search and rescue specialists.
Pre-requisites include being physically/mentally fit, currently holding a pleasure craft operator card (PCOC), passing a criminal record check and boating experience preferred.
Please be sure you will be able to make the time commitment before volunteering with us. The first year is the heaviest commitment as you must be trained before you can be considered as ‘competent crew’ on our rescue vessels.
Volunteering at RCM SAR Station 60 Comox demands the following time commitment from you:
• New crew certification course – two six-hours sessions, Saturdays in October 2018. This training is an essentially introduction/orientation to RCM-SAR Station 60 and on-board safety course.
• Crew certification course – January to May 2019 – Three to four hour sessions, once a week, for 24 weeks, either on Wednesday nights and/or Saturday mornings. Breaks at Easter and school mid-term.
• On-call duty – sign up for 10 – 12-hour long shifts per month (6:30 to 18:30 or 18:30 to 6:30). Report to Station 60, when paged, within 20 minutes to respond to on the water emergencies.
• Weekly duty crew training – on-call duty crews train for three hours on the water under the direction of the duty coxswain, during their duty week.
• Station General Meeting – second Monday, of each month, at the Comox fire hall for passage of information and station refresher training.
• Self-study in collision regulations, boating safety seamanship.
• Are you prepared to handle this challenge? Do you have the time to commit? Are you prepared to attend the initial mandatory new crew and crew training?
For our volunteers, we offer free training in boating safety, marine radio, seamanship, boat handling, navigation, first aid and marine search and rescue techniques.
Anyone interested can email rcmsarstation60Comox@shaw.ca, or attend an information session and open house at Station 60 from 10 a.m. to noon Aug. 18.
