Smarter training
New facility keeps our Navy sailors on their toes.
The 24m facility weighs 145 tonnes and T includes equipment such as decks, rails, lines, and ladders, along with winches, cranes and hydraulics needed to raise and lower sea-boats. “Exposing our sailors to this training in a controlled environment before they go to sea adds another level of safety,” says Lieutenant Commander Ange Barker. The facility enables sailors to train in water-based seamanship skills such as man-overboard recovery, launching of rigid-hulled inflatable boats by crane, pilot ladder use, and liferaft launch and recovery. “We now have standardised seamanship training for all of the Defence Force, not just the Navy, in an environment where these skills can be practiced day or night. The repetition develops experience before going to sea,” says Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral John Martin.
“Our people no longer need to rely on classroom work or heaving lines across the parade ground.
“This facility ensures we have the capability and equipment to train our people, not just in the basic evolution training of skills, but also in developing experience and managing risk.”
Combined with the existing indoor mock ship’s hull for practicing other skills and drills, the Navy’s modern Seamanship Training complex is now complete.
BNZ