Workboats are a big part of the waterfront, and their operators often take just as much pride in their vessel’s condition and performance as they would of their own personal boat. Firefighter Sean Kearns is so excited, he sent us the drawings of the new Clark County fire boat built by North River, one of the many quality builders in our region that supplies both working vessels and pleasure boats. I’ll let Sean tell the story himself and wait for the invite to go for a ride. -KH
By Sean Kearns, Clark, Washington
I work as a Firefighter for Clark County Fire and Rescue, in Clark County, Washington. We have been awarded a port securities grant through the Department of Homeland Security for a new fire boat.
The fireboat will be kept on lake river, a slough to the Columbia River. McCuddy’s marina is located in Ridgefield where our boat house resides. We were fortunate enough to build a new boat house through private donors which will shelter our new fireboat, plus one other jet rescue boat we use for the Lewis River and other shallow water operations. The new fire boat will be a regional asset for the lower Columbia River from Vancouver to Longview and trailered further for major incidents when requested.
Our fireboat is being built by Northriver/Almar from Roseburg, Or. The boat is 30ft with a 9.5ft beam. The boat was specified to be trailerable. Twin Yamaha 300’s will power this boat at an estimated top speed of +40kts. A V8 inboard will power the Hale fire pump to produce around 1200 gallons per minute out a fire monitor mounted on the bow. Several other discharge ports will be located both bow and stern to support dockside attack or exposure operations.
I’m very excited about the electronics package as I had the opportunity to design it myself. Two Simrad NSE8 will be mounted on either side on the dash console. These multifunction displays with be networked with broadband radar, structure scan sonar, flir thermo-imaging, class b AIS, and GPS. The information will be available to both the boat operator and the officer on the boat.
She has a name, but I can’t reveal it ’til she’s christened. That, and I’m smart enough to know that in Government work things will change in a heartbeat. Once she’s labeled on the transom it will be official.
The completion date is around September this year.
