Coastie surf training

Very interesting short story and pictures about some Coastie surf boat training in San Francisco.

Coasties surfing

This is why the Coast Guard has a saying that "you have to go out, but, you don't have to come back"!

We had one of these 44' MLBs (Harbour Lights produced one)in New Smyrna Beach because of the water coming over the entrance bar to the station. I could not tell if the boat in the pictures was the 44' MLB or a newer replacement for the older 44'. While the water was never like that in the pictures it certainly did get rough. Normal training for operating these boat is in Oregon.

I think it is the 47 footer when you look at the configuration. In trying to find decent pics to share I did come across several that said they were Station SF boats.

Crew Training is at Cape Disappointment, WA (yes, where the lighthouse is). Supposed to be some of the ugliest surf anywhere. Somewhere along the line I read an article that they will send students back to their commands if the surf isn't rough enough and that every student will experience a total rollover of the boat. Better to do that under controlled circumstances so the students learn to trust the boat and that it will right itself. Would be one whale of a ride!

The roll over on the old 44' MLB was controlled and calculated very carefully by CG Engineering to tight itself in 60 seconds or less. I had control of the electronics equipment on the MLBs for the 6 years I was in CG Headquarters. Every piece of electronics equipment installed or replaced had to be approved by the engineers. They had to be sure that adding or replacing a piece of equipment would not change the roll over characteristics of the boat.