Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the 2012 recreational boating season, and with the increased number of boaters on the water, there will be mishaps, close calls and even a few emergencies that will require help from first-responders.
The Coast Guard is quick to remind all boaters that the best way to stay safe on the water is to have your vessel inspected and properly equipped.
And the operator must stay alert and conscious of his or her surroundings, including other boaters.
And then there is alcohol.
According to the Coast Guard Office of Boating Safety, alcohol is the primary contributing factor in boating fatalities.
And, of course, all occupants of a boat should wear life jackets at all times.
In the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Hood Canal and Puget Sound, observe vessel traffic zones and stay clear of large commercial ships, tugs and barges.
Despite the best efforts in boat and trailer maintenance and upkeep, the unexpected can happen.
BoatÂU.S. can be a boater’s best friend — at least on a bad day. It’s a 45-year-old company with more than 650,000 members in a system similar to an auto club.
BoatU.S. offers its boat-towing services in our waters through Vessel Assist, operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by Capt. Roger Slade out of Port Hadlock and now Brinnon and Union on Hood Canal.
The three boats Vessel Assist uses locally, depending on the calamity, are Gabriel, a 26-foot fiberglass boat based in Port Hadlock that is outfitted with a tow bitt; Negotiator, a 26-foot Munson aluminum boat that was originally built for dive survey and salvage that is dispatched out of Union on the southern Hood Canal; and the company’s most recent acquisition, Ultimate, a 22-foot Shamrock positioned in Pleasant Harbor near Brinnon.
Slade said the boats are under way within 15 minutes of receiving a call for assistance. Each is typically able to reach a distressed mariner within about half an hour.
Last year, his boats responded to about 200 calls for help.
Forty percent were from BoatU.S.-insured members, and the other 60 percent ultimately wished they were.
The average national cost of a call is $600, based on a rate of about $250 an hour.
That compares with BoatU.S.’s annual package at $149, for which aid will come to a stricken boat within 25 miles of a coast, up to $2,500 a year.
(For those who pull a boat by trailer, an annual trailer-assistance package costs $38.)
When I spoke with Slade last week, he told me about an app for smartphones that BoatU.S. offers for free to anyone.
He said that once you register the app, should you break down on the water, use of the app will put you in contact with the dispatch center, which in turn will notify the appropriate Coast Guard sector on your behalf.
Slade said the app doesn’t take the place of an emergency position-indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB, but is nonetheless handy if you are within cellphone range.
He also said the app was rolled out about a year ago, and more than 500 distressed boaters have used it to resolve their misfortunes.
For more information on BoatU.S. services, visit www.boatus.com or call 800-395-2628.
Slade’s website is www.boatus.com/hoodcanal.
On the hard
Platypus Marine has Pacific Pride sitting in the Commander Building on Marine Drive in Port Angeles.
She is a 58-foot commercial fishing vessel that was built by Kettenburg Marine in San Diego in 1974.
According to Capt. Charlie Crane, Platypus’ director of sales and marketing, personnel will be removing a wedge-shaped mass off the bottom, starting at approximately 18 inches up the transom from the boat’s bottom and intersecting the hull going forward at about 9 feet.
The fiberglass department will then form a new bottom for this area, and Pacific Pride will again be watertight.
Crane said the expectation is that shaving the boat’s bottom in this fashion will eliminate much of the drag the boat experiences when under way.
Platypus has Scorpio, a West Bay SONSHIP 58, sitting on the hard.
Platypus donated a haul-out to the Forgotten Children’s Fund that was auctioned off last Christmas at a fundraiser on Lake Union in Seattle.
The owner of Scorpio was the high bidder.
Among other things, he is having new zincs installed, the through-hull fittings are being inspected and serviced as necessary, and the boat’s bottom is being freshened with a coat of paint just in time for the summer boating season.
Sitting next to Scorpio is Atlantis, a 58-foot Delta that is out of the water only long enough for a new set of zincs and a coat of bottom paint before she heads off to Astoria, Ore., to fish for sardines.
Port Angeles Harbor watch
Tesoro Petroleum on Tuesday provided bunkers to British Councillor, a 755-foot petroleum products tanker with a 105-foot beam that is due into Sendai, Japan, next Sunday morning.
On Wednesday and Friday, Tesoro refueled the Crowley-owned articulated tug and barges Commitment and Vision.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfronts.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome.
Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.
