Published on 3/12/2008 in TheDay.com

Old Saybrook — The fire department's 24-foot rescue boat sank during high winds and heavy rains last week, leaving the department without a maritime rescue vessel.

The outboard motorboat, which had on board a variety of emergency rescue equipment that was also destroyed in the incident, sank sometime overnight last Tuesday, said J.T. Dunn, deputy chief of the fire department.

Dunn said the boat's loss is significant to a department that “takes great pride in its equipment.”

“It was a sad day for us,” he said.

He estimated the loss to be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

“We had a lot of advanced equipment on that boat, radios and things like that,” Dunn added.

The boat was docked at the Oak Leaf Marina near the mouth of the Connecticut River. Dunn said fire and marina officials believe the back of the boat got swamped by a large wave and that the vessel then began taking on water faster than its bilge pump, which was working, could keep up with.

Workers at the marina last Wednesday morning found the boat largely submerged and upside down, though still tied to the dock.

Divers from Sea Tow Central Connecticut, the marine towing company, used large flotation devices around the boat to float it up enough so that it could be flipped over. Workers towed it to a lift system nearby and removed it from the water, Dunn said.

The fire department is working with the town on filing a claim with the town's insurance carrier, he added. The department also just recently began working with the town and the office of U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, for federal funding to buy a new rescue boat. Dunn said those efforts would continue.

The rescue boat plays an essential role in the town's emergency services, Dunn said, because of the large amount of boat traffic here on the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. In fact, he said, in recent years there have been more fatalities on the water here than on the roads.

Town police have offered to share with the fire department its boat. The marina also has offered to lend the department a boat while it seeks a replacement, Dunn said.

During last week's storm, winds along the river were so fierce, he said, that a door at the Oak Leaf Marina was ripped off its hinges.