BLADESTRIKE
How she hangin mate?
I used to do a little overwater night hoisting way back when! SeaKings, out of Shearwater.
Ask any SAR guy, anywhere, and they will tell you that hoisting currency for Level 1 SAR, (i.e. Night, Over water) requires at the very minimum, weekly Day hoist sessions, overwater and land augmented with a minimum of one Night Over water session every 28 days.
Understand that this is a minimum and will vary on Crew experience. Night hoisting to the water is about the most difficult excercise you will ever attempt and does require at the very minimum a good knowledge of set-up techniques i.e. T-Pattern of Flares on the water for hover.
I agree that the best way is to have a fully coupled machine with Doppler, but it can be done with practice using established flare pattern references.
I would not attempt this without some serious instruction from a SAR expert who is current and competent.
For what its worth, the Lab boys in Canada didn't have Doppler and they made out just fine.
Cheers,
OffshoreIgor