Friends group launches $100,000 fundraising effort for nearly $450,000 overhaul of longtime rescue vessel
She's the workhorse of the fleet, but after over a dozen years of taking a pounding saving lives, the Harbor Patrol's No. 1 patrol boat is in need of some TLC.
And it's not going to be a cheap fix.
The Friends of the Morro Bay Harbor Department, a nonprofit support group focused on helping with needs of the Harbor Department, is holding a fundraiser now to raise $100,000 to help with the nearly half-million dollar refurbishing of "Boat 64."
Officially designated as Boat 3864, Boat 64 is a Radon surf rescue and firefighting boat and the No. 1 out vessel for the Harbor Patrol.
Its primary mission is as an emergency response and rescue vessel, oftentimes racing out of the harbor and into the outer Estero Bay in emergencies involving surfers, swimmers, and vessels in distress.
A 2013-model boat, she was first put into service here in 2014, having been custom designed and built for the Harbor Patrol's specific missions, including being outfitted with a water cannon to fight fires from the water.
"After more than a decade of demanding operations, a comprehensive refurbishment is the most cost-effective way to ensure Boat 3864 remains safe, reliable, and mission-ready for years to come," reads a notice on the Friends' website.
Harbor Director Chris Munson said the estimate for the refurbishing is approximately $450,000. The Friends group hopes to raise $100,000, and the Department recently got another big boost when the California Department of Boating and Waterways (DBW) approved a $170,000 grant to help with the job.
Harbor Patrol Officer Dana Stein, who wrote the grant proposal and is spearheading the refurbishing project, said the plan is to take it back to the people who built it — D.R. Radon Boat Builders in Goleta — and replace the tired engines with brand new ones.
"The engines have 8,000 hours on them," he said. "There's no real standard [useful life span] on them, but the manufacturer said we've got the highest number of hours that anyone has ever put on them. It's time to replace the engines."
The twin diesel engines are made by Toyota under the brand name Yanmar, Stein said. They are Toyota's diesel engines made especially for marine use.
"They've been ultra-reliable," he said, adding the plan is to swap them out "like for like," which should make things simpler for the repair shop. But because it's a boat and the task is not exactly like swapping out car tires, this job will take a lot more, like replacing all the wiring on the boat and stripping the paint off the 1-inch thick fiberglass hull for inspection, repairs and re-painting.
Stein said they haul Boat 64 every other year to scrape sea life off the bottom and repaint, mostly cosmetic stuff, as well as regular maintenance like changing the oil and filters.
At 28 feet, Boat 64 is the Harbor Department's largest patrol boat and their first response vessel. The department has another, smaller Radon, the 24-foot "Boat 69" that they bought used from the Port San Luis Harbor District a few years ago, and paid a boatload of money to refurbish and re-outfit to fit their needs.
They also have a "Pacific Skiff," an aluminum-hulled outboard boat they got as surplus from the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department. That boat is used as a back up for whenever one of the Radon's is out of service and mostly used for responses within the harbor. It doesn't have firefighting equipment, like the two Radons have.
The department also has two Kawasaki personal watercraft or PWCs that Stein said they refer to as Rescue Water Craft. Each one has a sled tied to it to tow rescue swimmers out and rescued victims in. The Harbor Patrol and fire department get specialized training with the RWCs.
In a news story from March 2014 when Boat 64 was first put into service, the lowest of two bids was from D.R. Radon of Goleta at $401,000 but several change orders added equipment to the original design and increased the final cost to $410,000, Stein said.
'We're going to spend more on the re-fit than we paid for it new," Stein said. So why not just buy a new one? "The estimated cost to build this same boat now is more than $950,000," he explained.
The replacement engines alone, he said, are $108,000 for the pair, and $187,000 installed. They are expecting to spend another $25,000 to work on the out drives, another $25,000 for new lighting and electronics, plus what he called minor layout changes.
Back in 2014, they had to piece together the funding, just as they are doing now for this refurbishing.
DBW contributed to buying the boat back then too, granting some $80,000. They also got a grant from the Joint Cable-Fisheries Liaison Committee of $40,000. DBW also gave $11,000 for a special trailer for hauling Boat 64 out of the water.
Today, they have $170,000 in the DBW grant, $187,000 budgeted over several years out of the Harbor Fund, and the Friends group, Stein hopes, can raise the remaining $100,000. "If we get that, we're golden," he said.
Stein is pleased that his original funding request to DBW was for $150,000 and they awarded $170,000.
How important is Boat 64? The Friends listed the many duties it has performed over the past 12-plus years: surf rescues, vessel assists, marine fires, marine law enforcement, wildlife rescues, drowning responses, pollution spill responses, and sinking vessels.
The boat has responded to emergencies inside the harbor, as well as outside the harbor and from Cayucos to Montaña de Oro State Park, where it has helped with several fatal incidents, including an overturned kayaker and a drowned swimmer.
As an emergency boat, it races to the scene battling swells and wind waves bouncing up and over the crests and troughs, literally taking a beating just about every time, as most rescues don't occur in becalmed seas.
So what needs to be done that costs nearly half a million dollars and that Stein estimates will take a year to complete? The refurbishing list includes:
replacing both inboard diesel engines;
a comprehensive inspection of the fiberglass hull and repairs as needed;
modernizing the electronics, navigation gear, and communications systems;
replacing the firefighting system's piping and hoses;
replacing the deck hardware and exterior equipment including lighting, antennas and the rub rail;
modifications to the layout to improve crew safety and operational efficiency;
a complete cosmetic refurbishing, including repainting the high-wear areas of the hull.
Inspecting the hull to check for cracking or tearing of the fiberglass layers could greatly extend the life of the boat, as the department's previous workhorse Radon patrol boat, No. 68, had the fiberglass skin partially delaminate or simply put — tear off — en route to a rescue call off Montaña de Oro.
That boat had been in faithful service for some 34 years, though Stein said they took it easy on the boat the last few years it was in service. It was eventually sold at auction, with the proceeds used to help pay for Boat 69's re-outfitting. Stein said they hope by spending money now, they can keep Boat 64 in service for a long time to come.
"The idea is that if we do this every 10 or 15 years," Stein said, "we could run this boat for another 40 years, maybe 50."
For information about the Friends of the Morro Bay Harbor Department's fundraising efforts, see the website at friendsoftheMBHD.org
As a nonprofit organization, all donations are tax-deductible.