Four crew attain Coastguard senior & operational levels

Training for success! Four volunteer crew have recently achieved Coastguard senior and operational levels, the well-deserved outcome of two years of training and a lot of hard work.

Baptiste Marconnet and Bjorn Stankowitz have become Coastguard Senior Operational crew, moving up from Operational status.

Patrice de Beer and Paul Mutton have become Operational crew, progressing from Trainee status. They are now fully qualified to attend call-outs onboard rescue vessels.

Bjorn Stankowitz updating the crew board with their latest Coastguard qualifications

Baptiste and Bjorn became operational crew two years ago. Close friends who joined the Sumner unit back in early 2016, they are very competent crew who paired up to achieve their goal of attaining Senior Operational level.

Patrice and Paul joined as inductees in September 2017, quickly progressing to Trainee status after completing the core induction modules. Both have extensive surf and boating experience. As with all trainees, they had to undertake a lot of training to acquire the specialist skills to become lifeboat crew.

The four Sumner Lifeboat candidates all did their final assessment on Blue Arrow Rescue, Sumner’s all-weather rescue vessel. They were formally assessed by a Regional Coastguard Instructor (RCI), who was from a different Coastguard unit.

Congratulations to all four newly-qualified crew.

Also, many thanks to all the senior crew and training officers who spent time training and supporting the candidates along the way, and to the RCI who travelled from Marlborough specifically to assess the Sumner crew.

As with all things lifeboat, it’s a team effort. 

Like to learn more about what training involves? Visit our training page.  And here’s some pictures of the successful candidates.

Bjorn Stankowitz

Baptiste Marconnet

Patrice de Beer

Paul Mutton