Friday, September 26, 2003. After a hearty breakfast, which was in actuality the first opportunity for the teams to “size up” each other, the teams gathered for the official SAR events briefing.

Mr. Neil Peet, Canadian Coast Guard, the Event Coordinator, conducted the briefing, assisted by Commodore Robert Colby of the USCG Auxiliary. Each team received their handbook of rule and instructions and each event was described in great length by Mr. Peet. It was evident that we were in Canada, since instructions were offered in both English and French, the two official Canadian languages.

Each event was broken down, step by step, in great detail. Scoring criteria was announced, some are timed events, others are point events and some are combinations of the two.

During the 2 hour briefing many questions were answered. These questions, their directness and intensity, were the first indication of the competitive nature of the participants. It was certainly time to get down to the business at hand.

During the few breaks in the briefing the teams huddled in separate clusters, definitely out of ear shot of the other competing teams. This was the start of their strategic planning that would marry months of practice with the specific events, as laid out before them.

Another of the orders of business was the creation of the four International teams. As mentioned earlier, each USCG Auxiliary District and Canadian Region team is initially comprised of 4 members. Only 3 of those team members would compete as representatives of their District/Region. The 4th member of the team would serve as a competing member of one of the International teams.

The individual who would compete on the International team was chosen by lot, one person from each home team. Each 3 member International team was then internationally mixed, 2 Americans and 1 Canadian or 2 Canadians and 1 American. The scores earned by the International teams would be, at the end, transferred to each of the team member’s home team.

The events were broken down into two categories, events for the District/Region teams and separate events for the International teams. It was announced that all of the teams would compete in the Saturday mystery event.

The events (which will be fully described in each of their separate articles to follow) are:
District/Region Teams
SAR Planning
On-the –water SAR exercise (SAREX)
SAR Pump
Heaving Line #1
Heaving Line #2
Mystery Event
International Teams
Chart work
Marlinspike
Water Rescue
Heaving Line 3
Mystery Event

In any event requiring team competition the exists the need for judging and judges. Two teams of judges were chosen for the events, one Canadian, one American. Each event was equally judged by both Canadian and American judges. The judges are:
US Judges
Commander Mark Rizzo, USCG
CWO Steve Cabral, USCG
CWO Robert Flynn, USCG
CWO Dave Jones, USCG
Commodore Donald Ladd, USCG Auxiliary
CWO Jim McInnis, USCG
CWO Mark Matuschek, USCG
Dave Esparza, USCG Auxiliary
Jeff Gunn, USCG Auxiliary

Canadian Judges
B. Stone
Ray Bartlett
B. Penny
Andy Duke
D. Llewellyn
H. Kearley
B. Legge
Dave Griffiths
Steve Sheppard
Peter Fontaine

The last order of business at the briefing was the distribution of bright yellow and black armbands that identify each team by number. It was amazing how the mere donning of these armbands made chests swell and charged the air with electric energy. They participants were now at the starting line and raring to go!