Personal Watercraft: A Trend in Vessel Facilities
By Kay Lori, Public Affairs Staff Officer, Division 7, D7, Tampa Bay, FL
When Joe Lori, Past Division Captain of Division 7 in District 7 qualified as the first personal watercraft (PWC) operator in the Auxiliary over ten years ago, little did he know that it would take that long before his own division would have 6 qualified PWC operators and his own flotilla five of those six. Now it appears that Division Seven may be starting a fleet of PWCs to do patrols.
On Sunday morning November 4th, 2007 with the weather beginning to turn cooler and the water temperature in Tampa Bay dropping, Joe as Assistant District Staff Officer-Operations and Qualifier Examiner(QE)- PWC put two candidates through the rigors of testing for qualification as personal watercraft operators.
With the assistance of the crew aboard the vessel “Omnia,” and coxswain Larry Neu, to set the pattern for the testing, Joe ran the course to ensure that distances and markers were properly set. Current Division Captain, Conrad Palermo, another PWC operator, assisted with setting the buoys. He was also on hand for the safety patrol of the candidates during their swim test and performed the demonstration of each task for the candidates.
The candidates, Fred Kramer and Debbie Minnick, both from Flotilla 75 Ruskin, FL, waited apprehensively for the course to be set and demonstrations before performing the required tasks themselves for the QE.
The first task was to run a slalom course consisting of five buoys set 150 feet apart and the rider was to run the out leg sitting down and the return standing up. Then with a passenger, the course was run with both sitting starting out and the operator standing on return. The passenger is to remain seated on return for safety while the operator stands for better viewing of the waters ahead on the return trip ensuring a fast, safe return of the retrieved person. Man overboard meant that each candidate assisted the other boarding the PWC to simulate a rescue of a person from the water. The same precautionary questioning is given as when retrieving a person from the water and bringing them onboard a vessel.
They also had to enter into the water and board their own craft simulating that in the event the operator found himself in water, he could swim back to and board the craft. They had to let the craft drift at least 20 feet before attempting to swim back to the craft before boarding. During the testing it was explained and demonstrated to each candidate the proper way to beach their craft and avoid sand being drawn up into the outdrive. Proper care and usage is essential to maintaining any facility.
Then it was time to do the dreaded (and fun) maneuver of turning in a restricted area at about 30 mph and completing a 180 degree turn. The area was a square of buoys fifty by fifty feet. The object was to enter the square at 30 mph, turn and exit without stopping. As each PWC began the turn, its’ bow would dip into the water and become a pivot point for the PWC to complete the turn and come up out of the water and reverse direction.
Towing evolutions were also performed with each candidate towing the other. QE Joe Lori, mounted his PWC and watched alongside as each towing maneuver was performed. After all the maneuvers were completed, came the easy part of the mission. The candidates had to complete a 50 yard swim test. When both returned to shore, it was quite evident that they were happy to learn that they passed the testing and qualified as personal watercraft operators. Flotilla 75 Ruskin now has five of the six qualified PWC operators in Division 7.
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