Skagit Rescue plies ahead with new boat plans

Skagit Bay Search & Rescue volunteers know all about changing tides.

One that has remained constant, however, is the high tide of community support the local group has enjoyed while modifying a 23-foot custom aluminum vessel acquired last year through the Guemes Island Volunteer Fire Department.

Donated and discounted labor will help make possible the formal launching later this summer from La Conner Marina of the Canadian-built craft.

Major and minor upgrades alike have been under way for the past 18 months.

Originally equipped with a 454 engine and Arneson surface drive, the boat has since been repowered with a 130 horse-power Honda outboard donated by Shell Refinery.

“It was designed to go 55 miles an hour,” Marcie Miles of Skagit Bay Search & Rescue explained, “and we didn’t need a boat that goes 55 miles and hour.”

What they needed instead was a versatile boat capable of rendering aid to mariners falling prey to the dicey nature of local tidal currents and the numbing and often dangerous effects of cold waterways.

Thus the near complete facelift, the latest wrinkle being installation by Design Techniques of a new canvas enclosure.

DG Marine had previously overseen numerous mechanical upgrades, while Hard Drive Marine completed alterations to the swim platform, transom, hardtop, cockpit, and bow rails.

Latitude Marine sand-blasted, prepped, re-epoxied, and painted the boat’s bottom.

That’s not all.

“The Port of Skagit County,” noted Miles, “has been very helpful with moorage on A dock.”

Such levels of support go back to Day One, in the early 2000s, stressed Art Kaplan, among Skagit Bay Search & Rescue’s lead training instructors.

Miles and Kaplan say founding member Al Womac was able to secure from US Marine/Bayliner a 21-foot boat that served the organization well for a decade.

Not long after its inception, rescue volunteers were being dispatched by the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve stranded campers on Hope Island, find hunters reported missing along the Skagit River, and locate wayward kayakers.

All that and much, much more.

Just not vessel recovery.

“We’re not a towing company,” Miles said, “What we’re here for is to rescue people. We’ve been out on calls on the Coast Guard helicopter and its vessels, and we train with them and the Sheriff’s Office.”

The group’s most recent training session, conducted last weekend at Deception Pass and Shelter Bay, involved buoy tracking and honing techniques for safely recovery persons who have fallen overboard.

The rescue group’s roster boasts a wide range of skills, from emergency medical technicians to firefighters to lifelong boaters.

“It’s really a great group of people,” said Kaplan. “They’re dedicated to serving others and using their training and talents when called upon.”

“Everybody lets us know when they’re available,” added Miles. “It’s important to have a large group of volunteers. And many of those we have are from here in La Conner.”

So far, it’s been quite a ride.

And one that only a few tides hence will be plied by a new vessel.