It’s time the fire department had a proper rescue boat according to Collingwood’s fire chief.
Chief Ross Parr said currently the department has partial use of a boat owned by the Parks, Recreation, and Culture Department. It’s a rigid inflatable craft with an engine, and often the sailing school will use it as a coach boat.
“It was what we could start with,” said Parr.
But earlier this month, when it was needed most, it was out of commission because the people in distress were the ones using the parks/rescue boat.
On Aug. 9 teen staff from the Collingwood Sailing School, which is run by the town, headed out of the harbour on a training exercise including two of the school’s 420 sailboats and the coach boat. Once in the bay, the waves swelled, and the leader of the exercise called everyone back.
Director of Parks, Recreation, and Culture, Dean Collver said one of the 420s made it back into the harbour, but the other had what’s called a frozen gooseneck (where the boom meets the mast) so the sailor could not control the sail.
He was trying to drop the sail, and was broadsided by a wave.
The boats are made to handle “turtling” or capsizing, and the instructors are all trained for it. This boat rolled three times and threw one of the two staff off of it.
The coach boat arrived and the staff member with the 420 boat managed to right the boat and drop the sails. He steered it to shore, swimming for the last short distance once he was close enough.
While the coach boat went to help the man overboard, a big swell hit the coach boat from the side and catapulted the teen inside of it out into the water.
“Then there was two people in the water and an unmanned rigid inflatable,” said Collver.
They tried to catch the boat, but were unable to swim as fast as the wind was pushing it. Both were wearing personal floatation devices, and they made their way, independently to shore. Collver said the staff estimated it was about a four to six-kilometre swim in some rough water.
The Collingwood OPP did deploy a rescue boat to search for the boaters in distress. They called in the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre out of Trenton, which dispatched a Coast Guard cutter and aircraft. Neither reached the scene before the teens were discovered on shore.
The following day, Collver said he and his staff had an extensive debriefing with those involved, and are working on some changes to safety protocol as a result.
For example, staff are being instructed to call 911 sooner for incidents where someone is overboard. There will have to be two people in the coach boat at all times, and the town will be working on standard operating procedures to have in place next year in cases of emergencies.
There were no students involved in the exercise and Collver said the staff have strict standards for water and weather conditions before they will allow students into the boats.
“I have zero concerns about these individuals’ ability to do their job,” said Collver, adding it was their training, experience, and personal floatation devices that helped them escape without injury or worse.
One staff member was taken to hospital, but was released with no injuries. The others were also uninjured.
The coach boat ended up at Beach 6 in Wasaga with no damage, said Collver. The instructor in the 420 sailboat ended up at Sunset Point. Several people called 911 when they noticed a boat with its sails down.
Chief Ross Parr said there was nothing the fire department could do about the calls, since they had no boat to use for a rescue.
“We had 31 people call to get help for this, and we couldn’t go,” he said.
Outside of this incident, there were times where the boat needed a repair and was out of commission for possible rescues.
He estimates there were at least seven times this summer where the fire department was unable to respond to distress calls.
Because the boat is soft side, the fire department can’t run any kind of pump with an exhaust without putting a hole in the boat, so they can’t use the boat to respond to a boat or watercraft on fire.
“Is there better designs? Yes. Is there a need for us to have our own boat? It’s looking like it now,” said Parr. “I will be asking for a boat in the 2020 budget … we’re looking for what is more suitable for what our function will be.”
Parr said the fire department - with the proper boat - could perform rescues, fight fires on the water, and assist with spill cleanup.
“Three years ago we wouldn’t have had this talk,” said Parr, estimating the fire department has received more than 20 calls for rescue assists on the water. Previous years have not come close to the same number.
“We knew at some point, we had to look at a new boat,” said Parr. “This year was the catalyst.”
He has no survey results or statistics, but he expects the increase in incidents is related to an increase in harbour and waterfront recreational users.
Staff and council will begin 2020 budget deliberations later this year, with some sessions open to the public.
