Message from MARINE RESCUE NSW

[mrsswordfisherman]

Here is an email sent to me and posted with permission from the author.

Subject: update on progress in MR NSW and Botany Bay, and info on up and coming boating lic course

Hi Donna,

I thought I would just touch base with you and give you a small update on the Progress of Marine Rescue NSW and of the Botany Bay units.

Well it has been a most hectic 6 months for me both as a board member and as the Deputy Commander on Botany Bay. The administration of the Solande Radio base has now come under our control but it is still the radio facility which services the Botany Bay and Port Hacking Area and that will not change.

We would like to encourage all boaters to contact our radio base and log on when they go out on the bay or offshore fishing.

Its call sign is Marine Rescue Solander and its operating hours are 0700 to 1800hrs all weekends and public holidays.

We have plans to extend the radio watch into the week days in the near future when summer returns as we find more boating traffic mid week these days ( that is Monday, Wedn, Friday). To do that we also need more volunteers.

The 2 former units on Botany Bay are now coming together as of 1 July under the one administration and both vessels will be under the one Commander.

The former AVCG boat. The yellow Marlin Broadbill ( old call sign CG 021) has been repainted in Marine Rescue Livery and is called BY 20. We have also had the diesels removes and replaced by 2x 175hp Mercury Verado outboard engines. This has given the old girl a lease of life and a bit more speed for fast response work. Most of this was paid for out of volunteer money.

We still have the Waveney but it has limited use, as it is getting tired. However, it is still very capable of hitting the big seas out to the Peak or to Brown's Mountain to get a broken down vessel.

We a re slowly progressing with the strengthening of our structure and functionality in Marine Rescue and we are almost on track in securing our own RTO for our domestic training needs, hopefully is not too far away.

We are ever so slowly replacing vessels with some hand me downs from Maritime( we completely refurbish them) It always about money.

The lic and boat levy has not been in the ball park we had hoped for so our vessel replacement program is a slow motion movie.

The first of our deep water Steber 38ftrs was delivered to Batemans Bay. It has success already and is working with the Rescue Helicopter in the area. The second 38 is to be located in the Shoalhaven region to replace the true but very old former navy dive boat used for deep water rescues.

This 38ftr was on display at Sanctuary Cove Qld and then had to port hop to get home because of the bad weather.

Our First new Kevlar Cat 3000 has been delivered to Port Kembla and we hope to have the next one on display at the Boat Show.( fingers crossed).

We are trying to clean up our offshore tracking system which will give seamless reporting on the transit of vessels up and along the coast, but a few bug still exist and it required more detailed user training for our radio base personnel to get it right.

Many thanks for your interest in our progress. I am again co-ordinating MR's involvement in the SIBS this year so I may see you there again.

One last item. If it is of any interest to your members. We are running a boating lic course very soon. I have enclosed a copy of the flyer for your information and dissemination if you can.

BLS_jun11.pdf