Muff,
Of course you don’t need a year to train for SAR – neither do I recall anyone writing that you did – and anyone with a decent hover probably can do SAR. The yellow canaries come in handy when the weather’s crap, the seas are big and the casualty needs a little space and care once you’ve recovered him. As you well know, yellow canary SAR is a little different from the sort of SAR you mention.