There is a bilge pump in the internal plenum area, and a working hour meter showing around 100 hours now. This was their top of the line craft at that time, with a full light package to include headlights, navigation lights, a 12 V adapter, and a flashing beacon. This was a Marlin craft built by Flying fish and sold to me by ProHover (a dealer in Florida at the time) under the Lightning SXH37 name. If this hovercraft saves one life, it has paid for itself for the rest of its existence.This is very similar to the current Marlin III craft sold by British hovercraft in Europe and Hoverstream in the US. "It's important to have this type of technology," said Ingram. A hovercraft can navigate easily from water to land, over mudflats, marshes, beach areas, along muddy or sandy shorelines. SHALLOW WATER CONDITIONS: Hovercraft can be used all year round by rescue and law enforcement along coastlines where large boats cannot operate due to shallow water conditions. A hovercraft is completely unaffected by underwater obstacles and is able to go over any depth of water. THIN ICE: Hovercraft can skim over thin ice and pull a drowning victim into the craft returning to safety in a few minutes.įLOODING: Hovercraft are critical when residential areas are flooded and it is almost impossible to use boats to travel down flooded streets because underwater obstacles like fences, fallen trees, submerged walls and vehicles damage the boats propeller and put it out of action. The capability of hovercraft to go where other vehicles cannot, gives the hovercraft important advantages in many rescue operations. Hovercraft can play an important role in rescue operations. ![]() The grant money covered the hovercraft purchase, which was approximately $78,000. Training was conducted by both agencies in January on Chickawauckie Pond in Rockland, during which officers from the Marine Patrol and the Warden Service took turns navigating the hovercraft over the ice and through a series of cones. John Valley flood in 2008 were great examples of situations where the hovercraft would have helped us and the Warden Service in our search and rescue and evacuation efforts," he said. "The Patriots Day flood in 2007 and the St. Marine Patrol Pilot Steven Ingram, who is directing the Marine Patrol operator training, said that as flood season begins this spring, this piece of equipment will be helpful. "It's important to have a variety of operators in different parts of the state, and we're collaborating with the Marine Patrol to share that responsibility to have available operators in any emergency throughout the State of Maine," he said. We'll be training more operators as time goes on."ĭunham said the partnership between Marine Patrol and the Warden Service is very important because they cover similar areas and often times work together to perform searches and rescues. The operators have been hand-picked by the respective departments. "There's no resistance to the surface once you're on hover,” he said. Sergeant Ron Dunham, of the Maine Warden Service, said the hovercraft was like no snowmobile, ATV or watercraft that anyone would have operated. ![]() This lift air is contained under the craft by flexible segmented skirts that keep the air cushion pressure up, which allows it to travel over a variety of terrain from ice to water to marshes. Part of the fan thrust is ducted through the double skin hull to lift the craft off the surface on a cushion of air. Manufactured by Michigan-based Hovertechnics, the hovercraft is propelled by fans mounted on the stern. ![]() Purchased through grants from the Outdoor Heritage Fund and the Maine Emergency Management Agency, the grant funds allowed the two agencies to acquire a hovercraft in 2012 and after two years of training, the Marine Patrol and Warden Service are prepared to use their new piece of equipment for rescues on ice-choked harbors and waterways, as well as coastal flats and other areas that are difficult to access by boat. Housed in the Marine Patrol's Rockland boat repair facility, a hovercraft is available to both agencies for search-and-rescue operations in the mixed terrain they often encounter throughout the year. ![]() ROCKLAND - With ice-bound waterways breaking up and river flooding an increasing threat, the Maine Marine Patrol and the Maine Warden Service are well-equipped for search and rescue operations on both coastal and inland waters.
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