How To Get Crew Qualified

District 17 Auxiliary is Seeking Qualified Crew Members

By Mark Parmelee, D17 Auxiliarist

Does offering your boat and helping others while on a safety patrol interest you? If so, please consider becoming qualified as crew member or coxswain and offering your boat as an operational facility. Involvement with the boat crew program will make you a better boater and in the process, make Alaska a safer place for everyone to boat. This paper seeks to take out some of the mystery of becoming a boat crew member and/or a coxswain.

Operational Boats

The Coast Guard Auxiliary has a number of privately owned vessels that have been offered for use by their owners. These private vessels are inspected annually and are equipped by their owners with specific safety and rescue equipment on board. There is almost always a need for more operational vessels in all the operating areas of the Auxiliary in Alaska. The Auxiliary also has the operational responsibility for three SAFE Boats that were owned and maintained by the Coast Guard for use primarily in South Central Alaska waters by the Auxiliary. All these vessels need specially trained crews to operate them. The minimum staffing requirements for these boats is one coxswain and one crew member. To operate the “SAFE Boats” the coxswain and crew member must be specifically qualified as NSB qualified.

Boats having the required minimum crew can obtain orders to patrol in their area of responsibility. The appropriate Coast Guard unit will establish a communications schedule and the boat will report their location and status on a regular basis. Crew members will be required to wear prescribed personal protective gear. Operational vessels on orders may be reimbursed for the fuel used during their patrols. 

Training

To become a crew member one needs to be motivated and fairly patient. The process does not occur overnight and there are a number of expenses related to the task. Crew members, and also coxswains, must dedicate a considerable amount of time to learning the necessary material. A number of books must be obtained and studied. Several Operational Specialty Courses are offered periodically and are highly recommended for crew members. While not specifically required, crew members often maintain current certification in First Aid and/or CPR. 

The bulk of the training is demonstrated by checking off specific tasks.  Crew members have specific check offs they must accomplish and coxswains have their own list of skills to demonstrate.  When the prospective crew member has studied and learned a particular skill, their proficiency is demonstrated before a mentor. Mentors are members who are already crew or coxswain qualified who are specifically identified by a flotilla commander as a mentor. An existing crew member can mentor prospective crew members and an existing coxswain can mentor both prospective crew and coxswains.  Members with special professional training (such as a medical professional) may also act a mentor for their expertise, even if not qualified in the Boat Crew Program. When all the required tasks have been successfully demonstrated before a mentor, a final test of the prospective crew member/coxswain is made by a Qualifying Examiner or QE. The QE will perform a comprehensive dock side exam covering the topics previously covered with the mentor and will seek successful demonstration of proficiency of the required tasks during a check ride aboard an operational vessel. The QE can chose from any of the topics covered with a mentor for the dockside exam. It is therefore important to be well prepared before going before the QE.

Training for a crew member frequently begins with land based training and check off sessions. In these sessions, learning and the actual application of the skills is demonstrated before a mentor(s). Trainees learn marlinspike, navigation, and the use of fire extinguishers, among other topics. Successfully completing the land based skills early in the year will result in less “classroom” or off the water time when summer finally arrives. Most of the remaining skills are those that can only be learned and demonstrated on the water. Platforms for the water based training may include being a trainee aboard a “SAFE Boat”. A maximum of two trainees may be scheduled on any given mission aboard a “SAFE Boats”. Sign up with the operational officer or Auxiliary Leader In Charge (LINC) to receive this wonderful on the water training. Search and rescue exercises (SAREXes) are scheduled at many ports/harbors throughout the summer and are also great opportunities to learn on the on-water skills. Even members without a boat and with some advanced planning, can come out for the training during the day or an entire weekend on an operational facility. 

Books and Study Guides

The first step in the crew program is to obtain the necessary training materials. In most cases, your Flotilla Materials Staff Officer (FSO-MA) is your first contact for training materials. You may also be able to borrow or share materials from other Auxiliarists.  Ask around of your Flotilla Member Training or Operations Officer and he/she may have a book or two to lend. Prospective crew members will need access to three books:

1. AUXILIARY BOAT CREW TRAINING MANUAL, COMDTINST M16794.51

2. BOAT CREW QUALIFICATION GUIDE, VOLUME 1:CREW, M16794.52

3. BOAT CREW Seamanship Manual, COMDTINST M16114.5C

The Auxiliary Boat Crew Training Manual is an overview of the boat crew program and discusses the auxiliary boat crew qualification process in general terms.

The BOAT CREW QUALIFICATION GUIDE contains the actual skills a crew member needs to demonstrate before a mentor and ultimately a QE. Prospective crew members are allowed two years to demonstrate skills, have mentors sign this book and appear before a Coxswain for the oral exam and check ride. Bring this guide to the Team Coordination Training session that is required of all crew members and have the guide when on land and water training sessions. This guide contains a study guide in the back to lead the prospective crew member to areas to become familiar with. It also has the check-off items and skills you will need to answer and master. The guide also contains a sign-off sheet that is turned into the Director of Auxiliary in Juneau by the QE when completed for review and certification as a crewman.

The third manual is The Boat Crew Seamanship Manual. This reference book covers everything from anchors to weighing anchors and is used by both prospective crew members and coxswains. The paper version is well over 500 pages long. Members who have finished with the crew program are encouraged to pass these manuals along to folks just now needing to research the answers to get their mentor check offs. Each flotilla is supposed to have two copies that are shared among the members. Please ask around and share those that are not currently being used. The manual is also available on CD upon request to the flotilla staff officer for member training or operations and can also be downloaded from the Auxiliary web site.

The Next Step - Coxswain

Prospective coxswains have their own check off guide, BOAT CREW QUALIFICATION GUIDE, VOLUME 2: COXSWAIN. Prospective coxswains also need to obtain a copy of the Operations Policy Manual. Coxswains have their own specific skills to demonstrate to a mentor and again, a dockside examination and a check ride with a QE are required. In addition prospective coxswains have to successfully pass and remain current with the Navigation Rules exam. Lastly, coxswains must have a minimum of 28 documented hours as a crew member before they can be qualified and certified as a coxswain.

Personal Watercraft Operator

Members wanting to become personal watercraft operators must complete a specific water based training class and work through the BOAT CREW QUALIFICATION GUIDE, VOLUME 2: PWC OPERATOR. Personal watercraft operators must complete the Auxiliary Crew requirements and also pass the Navigation Rules exam but do not need to be a Coxswain. PWC operator classes are offered several times a season at various locations.

Surface Operations Policy Exam
The Operations Policy Exam is now available and is required for all trainees working on their Coxswain or PWC Operator qualification. This exam must be successfully completed before the QE dockside oral exam and underway check ride can be performed.

The exam, a 30 question open book exam, covers surface operations policies located the Operations Policy Manual COMDTINST M16798.3 (series) and Chapter 4 of the Coast Guard Addendum to the United States National Search and Rescue Supplement (NSS) COMDTINST M16130.2 (series). A score of 90% is required to pass the exam.

The exam is available through the Auxiliary National Testing Center at:  http://cgexams.info/testing/

Upon completing the test, you will receive notice if you have either passed or not. If successful, your DIRAUX should get an electronic notification. Of course, it is always a good idea to print a copy of any electronic notice you receive in case the notice does not get to your DIRAUX for some reason and you will need that notice for your mentor to sign off on that task.
Note: The on-line exams require that you are running Internet Explorer 5.0 or newer, Netscape 6.1 or newer or an equivalent release of AOL's browser. It requires that you have JavaScript installed and enabled and that you have your cookies enabled.

NSB Crew Member

To become a crew member for the NSB “SAFE Boats,” an existing auxiliary crew member needs to be very familiar with the operation of the SAFE Boats. Contact the LINC’s for times that you can be scheduled to go out for training and for specific questions about the NSB’s. The more time you can spend on the NSB, the more comfortable you will become with the characteristics and operation of it. A separate NSB qualification check off list must be completed and it includes specific tasks unique to the SAFE Boats and requires a minimum of five separate patrols in order to complete all the required tasks. You will also have to complete a check ride specific to the NSB.

NSB Coxswain

Becoming a NSB Coxswain is the most difficult auxiliary crew task that one can attempt.  Once accomplished though, one can go out on the NSB “SAFE Boats” with a NSB qualified crew member. The primary prerequisite to becoming a NSB Coxswain is to, attend and successfully complete a D17 Coxswain academy. This course is offered annually and is an extensive 9-day immersion into the operations of the SAFE Boats.  NSB Coxswain candidates also have to pass a difficult on the water check ride following the coxswain academy.

Conclusion

This paper points out that becoming involved with the boat crew program is not an easy process. Not everyone wanting to become a crew member or coxswain will successfully complete all the requirements. For those members who do succeed it is a very rewarding way to make a contribution to the auxiliary and the boating public. Good luck to everyone who seeks crew member and coxswain status. Please do not hesitate to look to your flotilla leadership, flotilla staff officers and others who are current crew members and coxswains.

 As Arthur Ransome points out in his book Swallows and Amazons there is “nothing better than messing around in boats”. If not messing around in a boat, then talking about boats and becoming a crew member is a close second.

Web Resources

A Check List of step by step need to complete items has been created for D17 Auxiliarists wanting to get Crew/Coxswain/PWO qualified. CLICK HERE

There is a frequently asked questions page on the web at http://www.cgaux.info/g_ocx/missions/BCQPFAQ.htm  if you would like to get additional information. 

Also of interest is the Coast Guard Boat Crew Training manual, M16114.9D. This is used by the active duty Coast Guard to train and qualify their members but has a lot of valuable information.