I belong to Albany Sea Rescue Squad in Western Australia and we recently acquired a 8.5m NAIAD from Kirby Marine in WA through WA Fire & Emergency. I am the editor for our rescue squad magazine & also the photographer, and a crewman / come radio operator. Up until about two years ago I never ventured out onto the sea even though I always had a fascination for it.

Re the NAIAD what a wonderful concept of a boat this is, we have one of the roughest if not the worst coastlines in Western Australia due to the type of seas we get and the unpredictability and have always had a problem with a suitable fast rescue vessel, we have found that the NAIAD fulfils this need. Constantly people are commenting how capable this vessel is and the big thing is the sped we can get to trouble spots in all sorts of conditions.

I am not a chicken in regards to age (63) and have done a rescue at top
speed, not withstanding my first trip in this situation. All I can say is "what a bloody good boat". We also have a great skipper who really can put the NAIAD through its paces (sometimes frightening), Kirby Marine let him test their boats.

If you are not aware Albany is on the south coast of Western Australia and I
am sure you will have a map that will show where we are. Our coastline is very rugged with a lot of rocky cliffs interspersed with beaches, however a lot of these are not really conducive to allowing fishermen to fall in due to rips, undercurrents and generally having the odd bit of reef in front of it, however as all fisher folk are inclined to think the more hazardous then surely the fish will be bigger, (not always the case), a local shell diver can confirm this.

We also have a lot of transient boaties from other parts of the State who think our waters are nice and look inviting for a damn good fishing trip. They forget our weather can change very quickly from lovely to what a lot in Rescue would say as crap!, that is when we get the job to retrieve them, then of course there is the clown who doesn’t take enough fuel!

We have a very competent bunch of guys who risk their lives to help these persons out, and we are all volunteers. In regard to our boats, we have as our fast response boat our new 8.5m Naiad powered by two 225hp 4stroke Yamaha outboards, top speed 50kts plus with 3 crew. Then a 42ft ex fishing boat as the working platform for major rescues, and last but not least a Zodiac powered by a 90hp outboard crewed by two, we are considering upgrading the outboard soon.

We also provide a 24hr 7days a week radio coverage for the Southern Coastal area, once again all volunteers. Of course as a group we need to get together every fri night for what we call a sundowner (drinkies chatting, bulldusting, etc. Not necessarily in that order, and training is carried out very frequently, but not that night!

We also carry out testing for basic boat handling for boat owners in line with government requirements. All in all Albany Sea Rescue Squad are a very busy but efficient group.

See: Albany Sea Rescue Squad Website

July 2005