Jknife - if your attitude is that profit is all that matters and that therefore all civ companies will operate in the same cut-throat manner then it is hardly an advert for civvy SAR. Capability comes at a cost and if you are not prepared to spend that money then your true capability (rather than what you claim to have) will suffer. Now, in the big picture (which I am clearly incapable of seeing as I am in the military) does this matter? Well try telling a sailor on a sinking boat you can't pick him up because you don't train enough to keep your crew skills up to the mark - or worse, you injure him badly taking him off the deck because of the same reasons.
I am not saying we are perfect in RAF SAR but we do a sh*tload of training every day and night to keep our skills honed (usually 4 hrs per day) which, fortunately is paid for by the Queen. Who is being arrogant to suggest that an hour a day is quite enough to maintain the same level of capability? Maybe civvy SAR crews are that much better than us that they don't need all the training.
As for the serviceability issue - I have never pretended that the Sea King fleet is super serviceable but I can guarantee that when we declare an aircraft 'on state' that it really is there, ready to go and fully serviceable - can Bristows always say the same?