It was World Animal Day on the 4th October, and one of our customers used the event as an opportunity to promote their incredible club and raise money for a wonderful cause, the NSPCC.
On Thursday 4th October, Charing Cross in Jersey was full of about 40 big dogs, lapping up attention.
Members of the Jersey Big Dog Club (JBDC), Newfoundlands, Leonbergers, Landseers and a Great Dane were all seen padding down King Street, St Helier, raising money for the children’s charity.
Following World Animal Day on the Thursday, the Jersey Big Dog Club had more BIG plans for the large canines. On Saturday and Sunday, 30 of the dogs from all over the UK were tested for their water rescue skills and draughting.
Jersey Big Dog Club Water Tests
Unlike previous years, for the 2018 tests, JBDC wanted to use boats for safety and to act as casualty vessels. They took delivery of two Northern Diver inflatables earlier in the year in preparation for hosting the rescue event.
Water tests were carried out ranging from retrieving an object to towing a boat back with 4 people in it. You can see from the photos that there’s one dog towing a boat in to shore without the use of the engine and another towing 7 people in. There are some shots of dogs jumping from the inflatable into the water and also a number of dogs sitting comfortably in different areas of the boat alongside people.
Here at Northern Diver we were very proud to hear our inflatable boats were used for the water tests. They really got put through their paces by the huge hounds.
So what was the verdict on our Northern Divre boats?
The testers and dogs alike were all impressed with our aluminium floored inflatable boats. The trials were conducted in both our 4.2m and 4.6m aluminium floored boats that had the added EVA non-slip floor.
Chris Rudd from the club said “The as supplied aluminium decks with non-slip deck tread worked fantastically. The dogs and humans had a perfect non slip footing. In fact, the boats were stable and robust in general.”
He continued “We and the UK visitors were very impressed with the inflatables build quality, weight and actually just the general fit out of the boats. Powered by 24v electric engines the boats carried out their tasks without fault. They are light enough to be carried by 3 but preferably 4 people.”