KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – Two recently-acquired 45-foot boats will serve as the new “primary assets’’ for the U.S. Coast Guard's Station Ketchikan.
The boats will be used for missions ranging from law and fisheries enforcement to recreational boat safety and search and rescue, according to Senior Chief Boatswain's Mate Kevinn M. Smith, the officer in charge of the small boat station.
The new “Response Boat Mediums’’ which cost about $2 million each and were built by Seattle's Kvichak Marine Industries are replacing two 47-foot motor lifeboats, which had been in service at the station since 2000, Smith said Tuesday.
“The motor lifeboats were more of a single-mission mindset boat, they were more of a strictly search and rescue boat, heavy weather type response,’’ Smith said. “They weren't as fast as the smaller boats, they could cover distances but it would take a long time. This boat is more of a well-rounded platform for us.
“It can do the search and rescue, it can do the heavy weather, it can do the law enforcement, it's faster than our smaller boats, faster than the bigger boat,’’ he added. “For us, for the amount of area that we have to cover we have the second largest area (of responsibility) of any small boat station in the country this boat will cover a whole AOR a lot faster and has more crew comforts.’’
Station Ketchikan covers southern Southeast Alaska waters from the U.S.-Canada maritime border in Dixon Entrance up to the Thorne Bay area.
The new boats, which arrived in September and October, have a top speed of 44 knots compared to the motor lifeboats' 24-knot top speed and each of the boats' two engines have 825 horsepower. Each boat also has a 500-gallon fuel tank, meaning they can cover large distances without needing to refuel, according to Smith.
The new boats can move diagonally and sideways because of their twin jet-drive propulsion systems. The boats also able able to execute 180-degree turns in their own wake after traveling at 44 knots, and they can go from top speed to stopped in a relatively short distance.
Station Ketchikan has run three search and rescue calls one each in Lyman Anchorage south of Thorne Bay, Thomas Basin and the Tongass Narrows with the new boats. The station averages 50 to 75 search and rescue calls per year.
While the station has fast 25-foot rescue boats, those vessels don't provide adequate room on board for some calls. There was a call for a man having a heart attack last year, and while a 25-foot boat was able to get to him quickly, there wasn't enough space for a medics or a stretcher, Smith said.
“We made it work, but it was not the best (situation),’’ he said. “But this boat is just as fast as the smaller one, and it has all the room, so those types of cases we'll be able to do so much better. ... These are the newest small boats in the fleet for the Coast Guard. They're very well-built, very well-designed for operating, especially here in Southeast Alaska.
“This boat is going to increase our search and rescue capabilities 10-fold,’’ Smith added. “We couldn't ask for a better asset.’’
Reader Comments(0)