“You feel appreciated and competent!”

Peter Markwick is ESVAGT's first certified 5 grade boatman.

When ESVAGT started certifying the boat competences of its seamen just over two years ago, the ambition was to keep the top score of 5 for those boatmen with an extra special level of expertise.

Now the first colleague has reached the maximum score; Peter Markwick, who up to recently was an able bodied seaman on the 'Esvagt Cornelia', has become the first FRB level 5 expert.

"It is a great recognition. I feel appreciated," says Peter Markwick.

Peter started at ESVAGT in 2011 on the 'Esvagt Capella' and later joined the 'Esvagt Cornelia'. Now he is one of ESVAGT's four FRB assessors who certifies colleagues:

"Our boat competences are the result of a great many hours of training and transferred experience. I really benefitted from the training I received from my colleagues when I started on the 'Esvagt Capella' and I have lost count of how many training hours I have had since then. We try to get out every day because that is how we get better," says Peter Markwick.

Those skills were appreciated when he and two colleagues on the 'Esvagt Cornelia' had to launch a boat onto the water with 10-12 metre high waves in December 2017 in connection with a man overboard.

"The weather was bad and I remember that during my lunch break I had thought that this was not a day where you would want anything to happen. But when it did happen there was not the slightest hesitation about going. We looked at each other and felt confident that we were up to the job. We felt comfortable with the FRB 15c and sure that we had the right training to do our duty. That was a good feeling," says Peter Markwick.