How to Become Crew and Coxswain

By Jim Mayer, Flotilla Staff Officer, Member Training

On-water safety patrols are a popular, exciting way for members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary to support the Coast Guard.  However, before you can participate in patrols, either as boat crew or coxswain (Coast Guard term for skipper), you must train for and pass a Coast Guard-approved qualification exam, the QE.

On-shore training is first.  Among many things, you must understand knots, navigation lights, sound signals and chart plotting, as well as Coast Guard policy for risk assessment, physical ability, and rescue.   On the dark side, you must know how to respond to medical emergencies such as hypothermia, sun stroke and shock.

Once classroom work is done, crew and coxswains must develop their on-water skills. These include towing evolutions, man overboard emergencies, anchoring, and search and rescue missions.



Grant Skaggs, examiner  Donna Stull, Jim Mayer, Phill Smith



The work can be difficult and dangerous.  Members on patrol may have to pull a 250-pound unconscious man from the water, or they may have to tow a vessel in rough seas, or they may have to administer first aid to a seriously injured boater.  To compound the problem, Auxiliary crew may be tired, cold, and sick from rough seas.

 The Coast Guard response to these scenarios is to make sure members of the Auxiliary are trained, evaluated and confident of their ability to assist the boating public. The process they use is the Qualification Exam (QE). 

There are four kinds of QE exams and the first one everyone encounters is the QE for new crew.  Successful candidates pass oral and on-water exams based on the Crew Qualification Guide, whose chapters cover first aid, chart plotting, safety equipment, emergency procedures, communication, and boat handling.  On water, candidates must be able to assist coxswains with man overboard, anchoring, and towing.



QE August 15.  Left to right:  John Gaston (top), Phill Smith (below), examiners Bill Wildman and Donna Stull, Larry Urbanek.  Photos on this page by Jim Mayer.

  

Once you are certified for crew, you must apply for recertification every three years.  Then you undergo the QE for current crew, which is the same as the one for new crew.



Radiowatch for QE:  Heidi La Quadra and Richard Brant

 Aspiring coxswains must pass the QE for coxswain. On shore, candidates must pass an oral exam and successfully complete a search and rescue problem whose components include plotting a course to the search area, plotting the search pattern, and calculating set and drift to determine where the victim will be. 

 On water, candidates must demonstrate proficiency in anchoring, man overboard, towing a disabled vessel, and executing a search and rescue (SAR) pattern.  Additionally, candidates must navigate a specified triangle course and be able to calculate the finish time and come within one minute of that time.  And, the navigation exercise must be completed after dark!

Coxswains, too, must be recertified every three years.  They do this by passing the QE for current coxswain, which is the same as the exam for new coxswains.

Qualification Examiners are members of the Auxiliary who are certified by the Coast Guard to evaluate candidates for crew and coxswain.  Typically, QE examiners are assigned to a region such as multiple counties in southwest Florida, and they work in pairs when evaluating candidates.

Congratulations to the recent survivors of the rigorous QE process here at Flotilla 96.  Grant Skaggs and Jim Mayer recertified for coxswain and crew respectively on August 15.  After a delayed night navigation on Sept. 8, John Gaston and Larry Urbanek successfully completed the QE for coxswain.  Gaston certified for the first time and Urbanek recertified.

Our thanks to the examiners who came here for those QEs, Bill Wildman of Flotilla 93 (Naples) and Donna Stull of Flotilla 9-10 (Fort Myers).