Enthusiastic Port Isaac boy Rafael ‘Rafa’ Coates, aged seven years, put himself through part of the ‘D’ class lifeboat crew assessment recently at Port Isaac RNLI boathouse. Rafa, son of Sarah Coates, partner of volunteer crewmember Andy Hallam, has been showing great interest in the lifeboat questioning Andy on the boat and equipment carried on it. All crew, as part of the competency based training, are assessed on this subject area so it was decided to put Rafa through the same test. Helmsman Del Allerton-Baldwin conducted the test one evening at the boathouse and by happy coincidence two district trainers/ assessors from RNLI headquarters at Poole were on hand to witness Rafa’s performance. Early questions were fairly straightforward for young Rafa but Del had to get a little technical in order to fully test his knowledge. Digging deep Del asked, “What’s the maximum fuel capacity of the two fuel bladders on board the ‘D’ class Lifeboat?” Bouncing around the boat, “Fifteen gallons”, declared Rafa to everyone’s surprise. All present agreed some crew wouldn’t have got that question right! Fair to say our youngest prospective crewmember performed extremely well making his Mum and Andy proud by scoring forty-five out of a possible fifty questions correct – more than enough to pass the crew assessment. RNLI assessor Carl Beardmore afterwards said, “That made my day to see such enthusiasm and level of knowledge from such a young lad.” Carl later reported back to RNLI District Inspector Tom Mansell who agreed such a great effort deserves reward. We think a certificate may be on its’ way. Well done Rafa!
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:37:03 +0000
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