By John Williams
Many counties and municipalities have boats. Some have firefighting capabilities; some are for rescues and beach patrols. When your city has more than seven miles of beaches and one of the busiest port complexes in the world, you have both.
The Long Beach (CA) Fire Department believes it has the finest boats on the West Coast and possibly in the world. The department operates a fleet of six lifeguard rescue boats and two firefighting boats for the Port of Long Beach.
The seaside city took delivery of the 108-foot firefighting boat Protector in 2014. Vigilance, also a 108-foot vessel, followed in 2016. The Foss Maritime boats were built in Seattle to replace two boats commissioned in 1987. Designed by Robert Allen Ltd., they are capable of 13 knots and pumping 41,000 gallons per minute, at a cost of about $51 million.
The lifeguard boats are 32-foot Seaways, which were actually built in the city of Long Beach. Seaway Boats closed in 2006 when founder owner Bob Stapp retired. Long Beach Fire was lucky enough to get the last two built by Stapp. Cities and counties all over the West Coast are using Seaway boats to this day.
- Fire Boat Archives, part 1
- Fire Boat Archives, part 2
- Trends in Small- and Medium-Sized Fire and Rescue Boats
1 The Long Beach (CA) Fire Department has six 32-foot Seaways used by lifeguards. The boats have been meticulously maintained and fitted with the latest navigation technology. (Photos by author.)
2 To keep the lifeguards’ boats in top shape, the power driving the pumps in all six vessels was replaced with Steyr Motors 2.1 diesel engines.
3 The boats were outfitted with the latest radar and navigation electronics in the industry.
4 Fleet mechanics and management consulted with the lifeguard boat operators to develop and design the most appropriate radar/scene lighting/antenna platform during the refurbishments.
Very solid glass-over-plywood boats, they can patrol the shorelines, crossing the choppy afternoon seas between Long Beach and Catalina Island. They also navigate the four large marinas basins and narrow canals of Long Beach, where hundreds of private boat owners keep their boats. The large aft decks and dive platforms are designed by the lifeguards themselves working with Stapp. Located central aft deck with a support structure below is a large stainless Sampson post to pull boats off the massive Long Beach Federal Break Wall or any other dangerous situations. Two Cummins QSB 6.7 “Slimline” main engines spin the props through Twin Disc transmissions. A Steyr Motors 2.1 diesel engine spins the Fybroc Pump capable of flowing 1,500 gpm of seawater to make quick work of a boat fire or squirt some kids at the summer beach camps.
Boats are expensive, and buying a new Seaway isn’t an option. Vic Pitts, a mechanic for the City of Long Beach’s Fleet Services, has been repairing and maintaining them for 15 years. The past three years he has managed a repower, repaint, replumb, rewire, reoutfit, reelectronic upgrade of these workhorses. Pitts collaborated with the lifeguard boat operators and designed a radar/scene lighting/antenna platform during the refurbishments, building several mockups to make sure they were just right. He also worked directly with Simrad to outfit the fleet with the latest radar and navigation electronics in the industry. Long Beach lifeguards have the capability to wirelessly receive coordinates and set up a search grid pattern that the boat’s autopilot will follow while they scan and search with eyes and binoculars. This is new technology, and at this point, only Long Beach has it, although the Coast Guard will be close behind. This technology can save valuable minutes when a search is underway or a boat is on fire.
Because of a meticulous maintenance strategy, these boats will provide service for many more years. There’s a good case to be made in calling these boats “The Best in the West.”
JOHN WILLIAMS is a fleet supervisor II for the City of Long Beach (CA) Fleet Services Bureau. He has been with the City of Long Beach for 14 years, seven as a supervisor of fire equipment. He has 34 years of automotive, truck, and boat experience and spent 20 years as a Dodge dealership mechanic. He is an ASE Double Master and a board member and secretary of the Southern California Fire Mechanics Association.
