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Swift Water Rescue Boat?
What kind of boat would you sugest for swift water rescue, with these conditions rivers up to class 4 that very in depth from 6 in. to 30 + feet , were useing a 16 ft double wide flat bottom thats almost useless, we rounded anouther prop off yesterday, Im thinking some type of infatibale zodiac or mercury 12 to 16 ft, not sure about the prop, jet prop, or a prop with a bell and a shallow water drive. your thoughts? what about pricing and where to get it?
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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How wide is the river you're talking about?
In most of the southeast, you would see self-bailing rafts or an Oceanid RDC used in this type of water.
You have to plan for a downstream takeout, you need a decently-experienced crew, and the guide/captain has to be an advanced paddler, but it works.
The rescue squads that work the Chattooga (Class IV to VI) use self-bailing rafts.
The rescue squads that work the Ocoee use self-bailing rafts and RDCs.
The swiftwater teams in the South Carolina Upstate mostly use self-bailing rafts.
Pelham-Batesville Fire-Rescue in Greenville County, SC has a 16-foot Avon inflatable with a 25-HP outboard with a jet pump. It is a little underpowered, but their streams are VERY narrow and an overpowered boat will get you in trouble more quickly than an underpowered one there.
A couple of the other Greenville County swiftwater teams (Lake Cunningham, Greenville City) use rigid-hull boats with standard outboards with props, but they don't take them in shallow rapids. They mostly use them for urban flooding or lake/pond rescue. Greenville City has a Class V rapid (Reedy River Falls) with a Class IV runout, and a low-head dam downtown, but they don't run motorized boats there.
Columbia, SC uses a couple of Zodiacs with standard outboard/prop combinations for the flatwater between their Class IV rapids in the downtown area. They use Carlson boards and an RDC for the rapids, with lots of help from local kayakers and the occasional raft.
If you run props in rapids, you're going to lose the props fairly often.
If you run jet pumps, the intakes can easily get clogged with grass, mud, sticks, trash, and other debris.
Human-powered boats require more teamwork and more pre-incident training, but you don't have to worry about losing props or the fuel supply. -
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Permalink Reply by Mark Tanner on
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check into a jet ski you can some times get one for free use for a year at a time from the dealers in your area. you may need a letter from the cheif or city saying you will take care of it and supply insurance.they can be a useful tool in swift shallow water
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