Sea Rescue needs volunteers

Bunbury Sea Rescue is in desperate need of volunteers with the busiest season of the year around the corner.

The rescue group has 28 members on its books but only six are available to be on call around the clock as required.

Bunbury Sea Rescue commander Eliot Fisher said the growing number of people working fly-in fly-out jobs contributed to the lack of regularly available volunteers.

‘‘Demand is both weekend and during the week so our needs are to build our volunteer base and to build the skill base within those people,’’ Mr Fisher said.

‘‘We’d like to have 28 but we’d like to have them available — we expect quite a bit of work with the increasing number of boats that are down here.’’

Mr Fisher said delivery of the group’s new flagship vessel in December would be a welcome addition to their fleet just in time for summer.

The $500,000 state-of-the-art replacement flagship was due to be completed this month but has now been delayed.

The WA-designed aluminium Oceancat will be the most advanced rescue boat in WA and replaces the volunteers’ 16-year-old catamaran.

Weighing more than 10 tonnes with a beam of 4.1m and length of 10.5m, it is 2.5m longer than its predecessor.

A minimum crew of three will be required to run the new rescue vessel, but up to five crew could be accommodated.

People interested in volunteering can serve a three-month probation and will undergo extensive training.

Contact Albert Fullerton on 0422 438 709.