Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Justin Buck on September 27, 2008 at 12:22am

i dont know if we have requirements beside u got to have a boat ed card

Permalink Reply by SMOKEnPipesJim on November 7, 2008 at 12:06pm

Hey Damon , we have a fleet of a rigid hull zodiac , a flat bottom aluminum (double wide) and a (standard) 12 foot aluminum, but we just took delivery of a 26 footer, shown above... We have typically had boater safety courses with our state DEP, but this boat is "real" and the department is a little at odds... we've spent a couple months training with a neighboring department on they're 25 footer, several guys with Captains licenses were brought into the company to continue the training, the boat arrived and everything stopped, because there are issues with getting the boat outfitted with nessisary equiptment etc.. ( go figure) I figure either we will be training in the dead of winter or in two or three years they will give the boat to the cops to play with all summer along with the one they already have ..lol

Permalink Reply by Glen Garland on November 7, 2008 at 10:38pm

Damon,
I'm a member of 2 depts both w/ boats. First my fulltime dept has a total of 4 in the water 24/7/365. These include a 65' 7500 gpm class a fireboat, a 42' EMS/rescue boat, a 22' center console work boat, a 22' zodiac inflatable all kept in the Portland Harbor yearround. The Portland FD has a department training program with objectives to be met at 3 levels: deckhand, engineer, and pilot for all personnel assigned to the marine division. Additionally we have several members that have their 100 ton Coast Guard license and several members on the dept that have extensive marine experience due to the fact that they are commercial fishermen on the side. My second dept in my hometown has a 22' airboat that is trailered when not being used as we have 14 different bodies of water in our town. This boat is used for dive team support, water and ice rescue, firefighting on several island in the various lakes, and we have also used it for reaching injured snowmobilers on major trails in the region. The Bridgton FD has developed our training objectives that must be demonstrated by each operator annually. These objectives were compiled by using the Maine Warden Service ciirculum as well as info from various other states and organizations. Long answer to a short ? I know but hope it helps and if you need more info give me a shout.

Permalink Reply by Glen Garland on November 7, 2008 at 10:46pm

Hey Jim,
You can come up to Portland in late Feb and head over to Nova Scotia to bring our new boat back and train with it in Feb/March. Casco Bay is beautiful that time of the year:) Not many pleasure boats to get in the way either unlike summer time LOL...Just remind your Chief that a boat is simply a hole in the water in which to pour money. Nice looking boat though...what is the pump size?

Glen

Permalink Reply by SMOKEnPipesJim on November 8, 2008 at 12:28am

Glen I would love to make the trip ... My Mom's family is from Nova Scotia, so all that stuffs in mah blood, Until My first trip up in November, my experiances with travelling up there had always been in the fog, I thought Nova Scotians lived in fog 24/7...lol (much less those of you on the rocky coast of ayuh and New Brunswick....lol) I might be in error, But I believe its 1500 gpm if not then 1250, as I said , since taking delivery, the entire fledgling "program" ceased to exist.... so we are kept busy tons of other stupid stuff.. its kinda hard to be enthuseastic like that.. But The neigboring community 's 25 is a 1250 gm for sure...lol

Permalink Reply by jerry harper on November 10, 2008 at 11:27pm

Congrats on the delivery of the new boat Jim, its too bad that the program ceased though. the only requirements that we have is to have a boaters safety course card. Even though we dont get many calls to use our big boat, we still take it out fishin, and on our way out we train on the deck gun and hook up our 1 1/4 inch line with a smooth bore nozzle on it and use that as well. If I were you Jim, i would talk to your chief and tell him that yall need to train on the boat. Even if it is not fully equiped with the fire aspect of the operation, yall could train on doing water rescue, just a little thought. well hope everything works out. and yall be safe out there

Permalink Reply by Glen Garland on November 16, 2008 at 11:23pm

Hey Jim, I forgot to mention when the PPD had a boat it seemed to spend as much time playing submarine as it did surface craft. I think it may have had something to do w/ the fact that you simply had to be a sgt. to operate the boat. It didn't matter that several patrolmen had grown up on the islands and had much more time on the harbor and in boats yearround...rank is everything right? LOL. The city mgr finally had enough and sold the boat and told them to work w/ the FD when they needed a boat. Helps us justify our boats and jobs though.:)

Permalink Reply by SMOKEnPipesJim on June 25, 2009 at 7:38pm

IN expected fashion, it took em about 6 months AFTER recieving the boat. to begin the training process part of the issue was you mean we need to buy stuff?? "4 pfd's is enough" (Hardly) and you already have them two on each engine with 4 members obviously that works well....we have to buy rope? it doesnt come with its own rope? NO you can not take the spare 02 and defib from the closed engine what if we need a spare? why do you need training operating a 26 foot boat with twin 225's out in the ocean ?? you got radar that you will never use.... etc etc... anyway, over the last month the Captain doing the training has logged over 300 hours , I've driven it twice played while the gun was operating pushing you all over (1250 gpm) We have done nite operations which means navigation without electronics including a couple trips with guys heads out the windows trying to see the bow that has been basicly E-3's crew and back up E-4 in the same house, last week started back on day trips and they included E-1 basicly even the boaters in the group are uncomfortable with the craft about 3 guys feel they know enough to get into real trouble...if they had begun when they applyed for the grant with navigation/classroom crap we could focus actual operations ie electronics navi and the radios and our response area.. which is technically large.. anyway.... better then nuthing I guess...