Issue date
The Royal Akarana Yacht Club in conjunction with Yachting New Zealand are running an offshore Cat 1 plus first aid course on April 22.
The course in St Jonns will be run by Dr Dave Austin, who is Yachting New Zealand's medical director and wrote the new first aid requirements for Cat 1. He's also the director of critical care for Central Queensland and has logged more than 38,000 offshore sailing miles.
RAYC picked the course up when the Kerikeri Yacht Club cancelled their race to Vavau - Dr Austin had already booked to come and teach for them.
The course is suitable for those heading offshore, cruising locally or further abroad and those who want piece of mind if they need to deal with a medical emergency afloat. One woman is doing it, as she cruises with her elderly husband and wants to have a plan should things go wrong.
The course involves lots of hands on activity, with each student getting a chicken to stitch and inject, and covers sea sickness, minor wounds, major trauma, major wounds and closure techniques, fractures and dislocations, burns infection – skin, systemic, antibiotics and intramuscular injections.
For more information, see here
