Coastguard recruits learn new lifesaving skills

Maryport, Millom and Burgh-By-Sands teams met to practice skills such as on-road and off-road driving, towing, water rescue and safety at the weekend.

Denis McCallig, Maryport station officer, said: "This was a day for volunteers to polish off some subjects of their training. It takes 70 hours from the minute a volunteer joins to train them up and as all the volunteers have full time jobs it can take a while before they can join the crew, but we do try to train them as quickly as possible because the sooner they join the team, the better.

"The training went really well, the new recruits managed to sign-off quite a few things. We're a blue light service and it's important that these skills are practised because especially during the first few call outs you are a bit like a headless chicken."

Next weekend the team will meet in Silloth to do some training with the new Rescue 199 Search and Rescue Helicopter based at Prestwick.

It will be a joint exercise with RNLI teams.

Denis said: "Helicopters can't land unless there's a coastguard team there. The first time you come across a helicopter you don't want it to be during an incident, so it's important for people to familiarise themselves with it in a nice training environment. Especially during the 2009 and 2015 floods we worked closely with the search and rescue helicopters."

Maryport Coastguard Rescue Team is one of 352 across the UK. It is part of the Area 15, which runs from Burgh-By-Sands to Llandudno in Wales.

All teams are made up of volunteers who give up their time to carry out rescues on the coastline.

Denis said: "Each team is made up of volunteers who willingly give their time to train and be on call 24/7. Some of the team members present at this training exercise were called upon on Christmas Day - luckily stood down quickly when the casualty was located. This just demonstrates the level of commitment the teams give without the expectation of recognition or reward."