SAR - Safety / rescue Boats

[butters]

Gents
Hope you can help here, I work for a charitable organisation called Bucks Search & Rescue and we are like many other SAR teams assist the police forces in finding missing, vulnerable and sometimes deceased people.
We are in the process of looking for a suitable SAR boat that will allow is to patrol the Thames and other waterways allowing us to rescue or use in flood times and a couple of options we have looked at are from the Narwahl and Rigiflex range.
Does anyone know if a suitable Boat/Rib that would serve our purpose, not secondhand but new.
Please come back to me ASAP with some suggestions as we are looking at the complete package, including safety equipment etc

[Andre]

Originally Posted by butters

Gents
Hope you can help here, I work for a charitable organisation called Bucks Search & Rescue and we are like many other SAR teams assist the police forces in finding missing, vulnerable and sometimes deceased people.
We are in the process of looking for a suitable SAR boat that will allow is to patrol the Thames and other waterways allowing us to rescue or use in flood times and a couple of options we have looked at are from the Narwahl and Rigiflex range.
Does anyone know if a suitable Boat/Rib that would serve our purpose, not secondhand but new.
Please come back to me ASAP with some suggestions as we are looking at the complete package, including safety equipment etc

We have supplied two ribs to Water Safe UK Search & Rescue Team. In 2015 a Parker 650 with twin Mercury 90 HP and in 2016 a Parker 510 with Mercury 90. WUKSART are also a charity and do similar work like your charity does.
Perhaps we could offer you the same or similar. see photo or visit www.facebook.com/wuksart

[treerat]

Personally the two needs are different in my eyes. For the Thames you'll need something with a bit of power as towing is likely to be part of the main role I suspect yet for flood you want something small enough to transport, set up and push / carry around with maybe an outboard - but probably not one big enough to tow on a tidal river!

Have a word with the guys at Rescue Marine (ask for Stuart) htttp://www.rescuemarine.eu

Stuart has great background and knows the rescue world well - I've ran beaches with him for years

[matt h]

Im sure Ribcraft have supplied a few to SAR in that neck of the woods which of course would be completely bespoke

[treerat]

Originally Posted by matt h

Im sure Ribcraft have supplied a few to SAR in that neck of the woods which of course would be completely bespoke

They supplied one of GAFIRS boats - and very good it is too. But wouldn't be much cop for the flood element.

[andyjcox1]

Ideally you want two different boats, one big one for the Thames and a small shallow draft for flood rescue etc. If you really want to do both with the same boat, I would look at jet drives rather than outboards.

[Ribochet]

Look no further

An outstanding piece of kit

Redbay

[willk]

Originally Posted by Ribochet

Look no further

An outstanding piece of kit

Redbay

Maybe fitted with a jet outboard or just a prop guard?

Jet Drive, Outboard Engine | Yamaha Outboards


She's certainly a trick piece of kit. Not sure what the delivery lead times are ATM? ;-)

[Poly]

Since everyone seems to be suggesting the brand they own can I suggest having a chat to London Fire and Rescue and seeing what they think of these:
http://mortonboatsblog.blogspot.com/...nd-rescue.html

Whilst all the ribs and sibs above are great, they would be easily damaged in flood waters etc.

Not sure if jets are good in floods - someone must have tried it but my gut feel is flotsam will get tangled up?

[GuyC]

The RNLI use a modified D Class for their flood rescue efforts and an E Class (not the Mercedes one) on the Thames. The E class does have jets, which is just about a first for the RNLI, due to the debris in the Thames. The two boats are different enough that a compromise would probably miss the mark in both areas.

Unless there is a specific requirement for the bigger boat I'd go down the route of a D Class clone which is what the Redbay boat is albeit a RIB rather than a SIB.

[willk]

Originally Posted by Poly

Whilst all the ribs and sibs above are great, they would be easily damaged in flood waters etc.

Have we warned the RNLI, P.?

Linky

[willk]

Originally Posted by GuyC

Unless there is a specific requirement for the bigger boat I'd go down the route of a D Class clone which is what the Redbay boat is albeit a RIB rather than a SIB.

Just to add to the mix - neighbours of mine:

NEW SRK (Swift Rescue Kraft) 465

[Poly]

Originally Posted by willk

Have we warned the RNLI, P.?

Linky

Not sure their priorities are quite the same as a small independent...



And although it was a long time ago... https://amp.theguardian.com/society/...oid-sonymobile

[jeffstevens763@g]

Resticraft by SIT inflatables

[CJL]

Perhaps we should have a discussion. Most of our boats are based on or near the Thames and we could link up with something especially now we have the former Portishead Lifeboat on our fleet.

Check out our webpage and facebook.

Northern Exposure Rescue | Marine Safety / Photography / Event Management
www.facebook.com/northernexposurerescue

PM me if you want my email and phone number.

Chris

[Pikey Dave]

For flood work I would have thought a Poly poly special would be the ticket. Personally I think you've 2 different needs & the 1 boat option will be a compromise.

Just imo of course.

[markmullen]

I am the lead Coxswain of York Rescue Boat. We're a patrolling Rescue Boat and also provide a nationally declared flood rescue team.

As others said I'd look at what you need as two separate requirements, river rescue and flood. We use a 5.3m rib for our routine work in York, low freeboard for recovering casualties from the water, dry enough that crew don't need to be in SRT gear and comfy enough to spend long periods in on protracted searches. It's powered by a quiet and very economical 60hp 4 stroke, ideal for our work at low revs during patrols at night.

For flood we use two boats, we've a 4m soft inflatable, an FRB400, which is built as a flood rescue boat, loads of reinforcement, rubbing strakes etc as flood is pretty demanding. This has a 2 stroke 30hp with an enormous surf prop guard as you do hit the bottom a lot in flood. It's quite a wet boat but that doesn't matter as we're all in full in-water SRT PPE when we're using it. It's man portable and we can use it without engine, either paddled or pushed during wading operations.

We've also got an order in for a specialist 5 metre flood Boat called a Connector One, they're a fantastic boat, flat bottomed, astonishingly strong, shallow draught (in Carlisle in the storm Desmond floods I was still driving in knee deep water which makes it much easier to transfer casualties without the need for big ice paths) and powered by a jet outboard for safety of crew working around it, and to aid in shallow water operations.

As you can see all very different boats, for different jobs. Feel free to drop me a line and I'll mail you my phone number if you want a chat to discuss. Mark.mullen@yorkrescueboat.com

[markmullen]

Originally Posted by Poly

Not sure if jets are good in floods - someone must have tried it but my gut feel is flotsam will get tangled up?

We use jet outboards, they're ideal for flood, no props to eat crews feet and when you do inevitably pick up debris on the intake screen you just tilt the engine up, clear it by hand, drop it back and carry on. In Cumbria for the Storm Desmond floods last year I picked up a full bag of rubbish, and a ladies furry winter glove (not a euphemism BTW!) amongst other things, all without issue, 30 seconds after the blockage I was making way again.

[GuyC]

All very interesting stuff and a demonstration of the usefulness of the forum.

There is a search and rescue forum - Home - SARworld - Talking Search & Rescue which I found courtesy of Google. It may be worth posting on there as well.

[Last Tango]

Originally Posted by andyjcox1

I would look at jet drives rather than outboards.

+1......But you do get outboards with jet drive.