Without people, no one gets rescued: Marine Rescue Unit Commander Alan Blessington

10 metres away, under a gazebo and behind a plastic table selling raffle tickets, Unit Commander Alan Blessington leans back and watches. His joy is seeing others carry out tasks; he simply pulls the strings behind the scenes, coordinating the logistics to enable the whole Marine Rescue Tuross Head group to function at all.

Mr Blessington - a Moruya local for 13 years - has been Unit Commander at MR Tuross Head for the past two. He is responsible for liaising with MR crews and offices all around NSW, for sending out crews to perform rescues and overseeing all other operations within the organisation.

"Anything that happens in the unit has to come through the unit commander," Mr Blessington said.

"He is constantly on the phone," MR Tuross Head public relations officer Ilze Svarcs said. "He just keeps putting in hours and hours of work, day after day."

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For a man who loves boats, old cars and fishing, a lot of time is taken up in meetings, behind the scenes. He does it for a love of community and people.

"I just love the job," Mr Blessington said; "You are out there helping the community, talking to people."

The community is one of the main reasons Mr Blessington joined MR. He wanted to be involved in a community group, and found fishing groups didn't appeal.

"Our small unit is like a family," he said. He wishes he had more time to visit members, train them and support them.

In the nine years Mr Blessington has been involved with MR - first at Batemans Bay before transferring to Tuross Head - he has participated in countless rescue operations.

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"You go and save somebody down on the water, and you bring them in - that always sticks with you," he said. "It's very, very rewarding."

"We exist to rescue people on the water."

He's seen the organisation grow from a small tinny-worth of active members, to almost 30 members active and trained to perform rescues. The training, which occurs three times a week for members, is a large reason why many members participate in MR, and is an element of the job that brings Mr Blessington great joy.

Two knee replacements prevent Mr Blessington from getting out into the boats himself, but he loves seeing MR members grow and be trained so he can watch them head out to sea for a rescue.

"I love watching people change," he said; "People do change, and they change for the better."

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"People are important to the organisation," he said. "Without people you don't go anywhere. No one gets rescued."

He is talking about the "excellent team" he has around him, but his statement is perhaps no more true than about himself.