A dozen naval personnel from His Majesty’s Armed Forces learned how to fix outboard motors, in a workshop conducted by a Japanese team of trainers, who arrived in Tonga yesterday, 7 May 2024

The four-day workshop is focused on teaching the participants how to fix and maintain a two and four stroke outboard motors and stresses the importance of maintenance.

It includes two-stroke and four-stroke motor maintenance with the replacement of impellers and plugs and other parts.

Today, an overhaul of the lower unit was led by Mr Kisaka from the Japanese delegation. He lectured on the correction of screw holes with a helix-coil, the disassembling and maintenance of the shift throttle, the remote control and, the adjustment of the shift and throttle wire.

Team leader, Commander Murakoshi Masato of Japan’s Armed Forces, said they were passing on “lifesaving” information.

“We heard that Tonga Navy has lost several lives in the sea because of this [engine failure] –so this [workshop] may affect future Tonga Navy’s search and rescue operations and is lifesaving,” he said.

This workshop is also the first of a three-year-long project and, every year will be more “advanced and harder” than the previous year.