And another 25 percent increase is expected this year. More Americans on the water led to a 25 percent increase in Coast Guard search-and-rescue (SAR) cases on Lake Ontario in 2020, for example. This growth has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic that prompted more people to seek outdoor recreation opportunities they had not before considered. The National Marine Manufacturers Association has seen consistent sales growth since 2018: 2 to 4 percent growth in freshwater boats and 9 to 11 percent in wake boats. In very shallow, remote waters "the last tactical mile" of rescues could be dependent on swimmers. In these cases, small rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) could be deployed from larger boats to rescue people.Ĭoast Guard 47-foot motor lifeboats are capable assets, but without a small skiff to reach people RBMs and MLBs may be able to get through bad weather to the section of beach or island but would be unable to effect a rescue because of their draft limitations. Many of these emergency situations are infeasible from land and in areas that lack helicopter rescue assets. In many regions this has led to a rise in a need for rescues from small remote islands and remote sections of shoreline. Driven by the rise in recreational boating, however, the more common emergencies now are people in distress on small powerboats, sailboats, and paddle craft. Increased safety measures for large commercial vessels, fishing vessels, and charters have reduced the frequency of large-scale shipwrecks in the United States significantly, although April 2021 capsize of a commercial vessel off the coast of Louisiana has shown that they are still a danger and the Coast Guard needs a capability to respond to them. These assets are designed for offshore rescues in conjunction with larger vessels. Coast Guard small boat stations in bad weather are 47-foot motor lifeboats (MLBs) and 45-foot RBMs. This realization prompted us to think about how we could make response boats more capable by outfitting them with a smaller skiff that can be used for in-shore rescue. A 45’ response boat–medium (RBM) can carry up to 25 people, far more than any Coast Guard helicopter. In a situation in which there are more people needing rescue, the helicopter may not have been able to take all of them in one go. ![]() This would have allowed us to take the entire family off in one trip. Trying to think of another way, we wished our boat was outfitted with a small skiff or dinghy, capable of entering very shallow water. Swimming in breaking water over a shoal can be tricky business for a strong, experienced swimmer, and the dangers would be amplified by the fourth trip because of fatigue. The sailboat had been pushed so far across the shoal that none of the station boat assets would have been able to perform a direct pickup. Because the draft of our response boat was too deep to get close, and because we did not have a smaller boat on board, the best option would have been for one of us to swim to rescue the family off the sailboat, one at a time. While we watched the evolution, we discussed what we would have done had the helicopter not been available. When we arrived on scene, we were detailed to stand by while a Coast Guard helicopter plucked the family off the boat and flew them to safety. ![]() In early 2019, my fellow crew members and I, on board a Coast Guard 45-foot response boat from Station Charleston, South Carolina, responded to a distress call from a sailboat that had grounded on a shoal near the mouth of the Stono River.
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