The RNLI have announced two new coxswains on the island.

Greg Anderson of Ramsey RNLI successfully passed his final coxswain assessment on Sunday, July 11.

The Ramsey RNLI said: ’Congratulations from all hands here at Ramsey to Greg Anderson for successfully passing his final coxswain assessment today. Well done and thank you for your time, dedication and effort.’

Douglas RNLI passed on their congratulations to Peter Cowin, who also successfully passed his coxswain assessment on Sunday, on the first of the day’s three crew assessment exercises.

Mr Cowin has been a member of the crew at Douglas RNLI since 1994, and became Second Mechanic in 1999.

His experience made him an ideal candidate for progression to coxswain - something which realistically should have happened in the spring of last year, but as Mr Cowin said: ’Covid had different plans.’

He described it as a frustrating 18 months, but said everyone has been working hard to enable the crew members across the RNLI to achieve this goal.

Mr Cowin described becoming a coxswain as ’the top of Everest’.

Coxswains are in charge of both the lifeboat and the crew when they are at sea. Mr Cowin said: ’You have to keep a calm head and make the right decision under pressure.’

In order to progress to coxswain, crew members must first complete a number of units covering a variety of topics, including: management, command and navigation skills, boat mechanics and maintenance, and response skills for a variety of emergency situations, from an engine catching fire to a man overboard.

They then have to pass a three-hour long assessment in which various scenarios are presented which they have to overcome.

For instance, a scenario may include a call out to rescue a swimmer, which is then hampered by technical issues on the lifeboat and a crew member falling overboard. The coxswain candidate must make the right decisions in order to pass.

Mr Cowin described his assessment on Sunday, saying: ’The crew were fantastic and the trainers [from across] put in a lot of effort, I couldn’t fault them.’