By Graham Davis

Boarding Team One gets a line of sight with MSA Bandicoot in preparation for boarding during a joint exercise between the RAN and NSW Water Police. MSA Bandicoot was the target for a practice boarding by water police.

Photo: ABPH Yuri Ramsey

WOB Barry Pincombe assists the training of boarding party on RHIB 2.

Photo: ABPH Nina Nikolin

A Water Police officer stands guard on the bridge wing of MSA Bandicoot during the boarding exercise on Sydney Harbour.

Photo: ABPH Yuri Ramsey

RAN minesweeper Bandicoot and DMS’s Seahorse Mercator were “siezed” by RAN and NSW Police boarding parties when suspected of carrying drugs last week.

Steaming across Sydney Harbour, the crews of the two ships saw RAN instructors and blue-overalled Water Police come alongside in a pair of six-metre police RHIBs.

Seconds later rope ladders were thrown over rails. Boarding parties scrambled up them.

Crew members challenged boarders but were soon suppressed.

Of course this was an exercise but never the less a very serious drill.

As a consequence of September 11 there is a move to tighten security at ports around the world.

That security will be enforced on July 1 when the International Ship and Port Facility (ISPS) Code comes into operation.

The NSW Water Police will be vital in protecting ports in their state through their Marine Operational Support Team (MOST).

Senior police realised the Water Police needed to be able to board vessels while under way, whether they be in a harbour or open sea.

Two six-metre RHIBs were bought and training organised through the RAN, which of course has done thousands of boardings, both compliant and non-compliant as part of duties in The Gulf.

Last week instructors from HMAS Cerberus, WO Barry Pincombe, CPO Ray Beasy and CPO Jerry Savage began a course to put 12 new students through and qualify four others as instructors.

Using land bases Garden Island, HMAS Waterhen and the Water Police Headquarters at Pyrmont, the trio put the police through a series of drills using two new police RHIBs.

On Wednesday, February 18, it was out onto Sydney Harbour to put the skills to the test.

They were in for a surprise, however, because the instructors had asked ten sailors from Fleet Base East to act as belligerent, non-English speaking and possibly armed, crew members.

The boarding parties scrambled on to Bandicoot and Seahorse Mercator in separate evolutions, “frisking” crew members, making searches and herding them onto the forecastle.

“We are drawing on the expertise and the experience of the RAN and working with them to achieve a better trained water police operative,” Commander of the NSW Marine Area Command Detective Superintendent Terry Dalton said.

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