Volunteer Boat Crew with potential land based roles (CSVA)

The Kingston & Surrey Unit of the National charity the Maritime Volunteer Service is looking for new volunteers to support its valuable services providing river safety patrols and water safety education on the non-tidal River Thames between Kingston and Shepperton.

Our Mission Statement is: “Supporting the local River Thames Community.” We deliver this by: Providing a regular visible safety presence on the River Thames, along the Teddington/Kingston, Molesey & Sunbury Reaches. Working with partners to promote water safety in and around the River Thames.

By being an active member of the local river community providing support to other river users. and participation in the Local Resilience Forums. Offering our members training and development in maritime and public service skills.

The core of our work is the operation of two volunteer river patrol vessels the Thames, namely: A 30 foot, 130hp Perkins engine equipped, 1951 former Police patrol launch, named Blue Light moored at Teddington Yacht Harbour.

A modern Pans 430 Safety Boat named Surrey Volunteer moored at Sunbury Court Island.

Our training and meetings take place in Surbiton

We are a disciplined uniformed organisation however we aim to make our duties as enjoyable and interesting as possible and we supplement our valuable work with a number of social events during the year.

For 2025, in addition to our patrols we plan to deliver more education and engagement with river users promoting water safety and would be particularly interested in recruiting volunteers to assist with the delivery of practical education to river users alongside our patrols.

Volunteers are welcome to take part in some or all of the operational, education, logistics or support tasks that we need to run the unit and we can find a role to suit.

Whilst some experience and interest in boats is useful it is by no means essential as we will provide all the training you will need.

All we ask in return is that you carry out regular duties and complete your training requirements If you would be interested in finding out more, we will be running an information evening in late January 2025.

We aim to commence new recruit training in February and again in June 2025, though we will do our best to accommodate new recruits outside of these dates.

What skills do I need?

Boat handling experience would be useful but is not essential