Safety on the water is paramount but ever thought about how the emergency services would reach you should there be a problem? The firefighters at Wroxham Fire Station have recently begun training with a small rescue boat to aid future rescue attempts on nearby Broadland waterways.

Wroxham is often considered to be the heart and capital of the beautiful Norfolk Broads and thousands of visitors descend on local rivers each day during the tourist season, not to mention the many private river users throughout the year. Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service therefore deemed it necessary that a boat be based at Wroxham Fire Station.

The crew, made up of 11 retained fire fighters have begun training hard with some learning new boat handling skills in readiness for their assessments. All live (and many work) locally in order to attend fire calls as and when necessary but many are already skilled boat handlers and several work in the marine industry. Their training in the Avon inflatable has included landing, manoeuvring, launching and recovery.

Watch Manager, Tim Waters who is also a Boat Safety Scheme Examiner said “boats pose different risks to buildings so it was imperative that we had a boat at Wroxham that we could use to access the waterways and help out with whatever situation presented itself. The boys are doing a great job working towards their assessments and we hope to be fully operational very soon”.

For more information on this subject please contact our broker, Pam Damji on 01603 783322/717989 or email pam@boatshednorfolk.com. Similarly, if you are thinking of selling your existing boat, trading up or down or taking the plunge into boat ownership for the first time, rest assured that Boatshed Norfolk aims to make the process as smooth and stress free as possible.

If you have a boat that you would like us to sell on your behalf on a non- exclusive, no sale, no fee basis and at a very competitive rate please call Pam now 01603 783322/717989. For customers who are trying to find their ideal boat I offer a registration service for listing your specific criteria/requirements and we will notify you of any boats coming to the market that might be of interest to you. This also means that for customers thinking of selling their boats we already have a database of potential buyers. We are always looking for new boats to list and new customers to match with those boats!