Offshore Racing’s Most Important Team
Practicing to save your own life—as offshore powerboat racers do with dunker training in swimming pools—is one thing. But actually doing it is quite another. The procedures for escaping an overturned raceboat through its bottom hatch are not terribly difficult to follow, at least until you combine them with the jolt of adrenaline and disorientation that come with hanging upside down in your restraints as the cockpit fills with water after a violent crash.
The good news? Most offshore racers who overturn their boats are able to extract themselves.
Yet if they can’t escape for any reason—unconsciousness, injury, panic or simple confusion—Shawn Steinert, who leads the American Power Boat Association Rescue team at all APBA-sanctioned races, and his crew are hovering above in a rescue helicopter and ready to save their lives.
“Some guys are super-calm, some guys can’t out of there fast enough,” said Steinert. “Either way, we pride ourselves on our response time, meaning how long it takes us to make contact with the racers in a boat that’s had an accident. We are running sub-30 seconds on average.
“We deploy two helicopter rescue divers on every ‘boat over’ incident unless I see helmets exiting the escape hatch,” he continued. “It is critical to not hold rescue resources back until both racers are on the surface. Time is not on our side during these incidents—that’s one reason they are required to have experience working in high-hazard and high-stress environments.”
Steinert and his fellow rescue professionals don’t want to get wet—they don’t want to have to save an offshore racer’s life. They’d rather stay dry in the helicopter for the day, stow their gear and head to dinner when their work is done.
Either way, they will always be the most important team in offshore racing.—Matt Trulio
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Source: https://www.powerboatnation.com/offshore-racings-most-important-team/
