Abandon ship! Emergency exercise brings ferry operators together

Passers by Falmouth's Prince of Wales Pier were

stopped in their tracks after seeing what looked like a ferry load of

passengers abandoning a sinking ferry to its life raft.

What they actually saw was a joint exercise

between the Maritime and

Coastguard Agency, who license the local

passenger boats, and local ferry operators.

During the day different scenarios were practiced

including testing man-over-board recovery methods with Falmouth Park &

Float boat, Kingsley II, being used.

The boat moved out into clear water where passengers

were informed that the vessel had hit a submerged object and was taking on

water.  

Passengers then donned lifejackets before the

skipper and crew moved them into the inflatable liferaft.

The exercise was part of an ongoing programme to

increase safety standards on passenger vessels on the river.

Garrick Royle from the St Mawes Ferry Company

said: ''This is the third life raft exercise we have done in recent years and

it provides an invaluable opportunity for our staff and crew to practice these

emergency procedures and each time we learn something new that we can improve

on.  

“As a company we are fortunate that in that in

over seven years and carrying over 10 million passengers we have never had a

serious incident or man over board but the possibility is always there and it

is important that we are prepared if something serious ever happened.”

The exercise was managed by local MCA Surveyor, Syd

Turner, who said: ''The MCA is focused on increasing safety standards on

passenger vessels and we are keen to do this by working in partnership with

local operators.  All in all the exercise went very well and all who

attended it found it very useful and we had some constructive feedback from all

the agencies and operators''

Another local boat operator John Pill, who runs

the MV Princessa, was joined in the exercise by fellow skippers, John Pill Jnr

and Ryan Medlin.

John added: ''I think it all went very well, it

is good to get the opportunity to practice our emergency procedures in this

controlled environment so that we are better prepared if it ever happens for

real'.”

Also in attendance were the local Inshore

Lifeboat and crew from Enterprise Boats, The Flushing Ferry, St Mawes Ferry, The

King Harry Ferry, Falmouth Park

& Float and Fowey to Mevagissey Ferries.

For more information on Cornwall Ferries please visit

the website www.kingharryscornwall.co.uk or phone 01872 861911.