FIVE Looe RNLI volunteer crew members recently passed their navigation assessments, joining four of their colleagues who qualified earlier in the month.

RNLI trainer and assessor Carl Beardmore spent all day Wednesday October 23 at Looe Lifeboat station testing and assessing the navigation skills of five of the Looe RNLI crew members.

After a written exam and an exercise out at sea, volunteer crew members Amber, Alex, Jonty, Nathaniel and Will all passed their navigation assessments to join fellow crew members Aaron, Goron, Richard and Victoria who qualified as inshore lifeboat navigators earlier in the month.

The RNLI’s Operational Competency Framework, which went live at the beginning of this year, introduced the new role of navigator.

With the introduction of this new role, the operations team at Looe RNLI decided to train all tier two crew.

Helping with the assessments was senior helm Clive Palfrey who along with Carl spent over three and a half hours at sea for the practical tasks, and shore crew Mitch, Dave and Ian who launched and recovered the charity’s Atlantic 85 Sheila and Dennis Tongue II.

Senior helm Clive congratulated everyone on their achievements, praising the crew for their dedication and hard work over the summer months.