I believe this is one of the reasons fast Safety boats are needed. One of the duties of a Saftey boat (not an Escort boat) is to block pleasure boats and make them aware that there are swimmers in the water. Another duty is to quickly extract an injured person to the closest extraction point on land.I guess we have a different view of the role of the escort watercraft. Beyond the steering, care and feeding of the swimmer, the escort boat is there to increase the visibility of the swimmer AND to warn off approaching watercraft. As a swimmer in the water I much prefer my escort boat captain getting on the loud speaker or horn to warn off approaching jet skis (which happened a few times in the MIMS) rather than a “safety” boat racing up and down the course trying to do a similar thing. If you have an extremely active waterway and need safety boats to block pleasure boats then you should have enough safety boats to do so without needing to race off at top speed on an interceptor run.
As for fast extractions, so far I’ve been fortunate that all of the rescues in my swims have been non-life threatening. From my perspective the real critical element of a successful rescue are the first responders and not the second responders or evacuation team. I’d rather pay a dozen trained waterfront certified lifeguards positioned in kayaks and on paddle boards than have twice that many first/second responder volunteers in power boats for one of my races.
And yes we plan for emergency evacuation and review the plan with on-water personnel prior to every event. Going forward, I need to make sure my second responder’s watercraft are compliant for all USMS sanctioned events. Is it more work for us event directors, yes.Is USMS doing this because it is a requirement of our insurance underwriter; yes. Is USMs doing this because it does not like open water swimmers; NO!
I believe this is one of the reasons fast Safety boats are needed. One of the duties of a Saftey boat (not an Escort boat) is to block pleasure boats and make them aware that there are swimmers in the water. Another duty is to quickly extract an injured person to the closest extraction point on land.I guess we have a different view of the role of the escort watercraft. Beyond the steering, care and feeding of the swimmer, the escort boat is there to increase the visibility of the swimmer AND to warn off approaching watercraft. As a swimmer in the water I much prefer my escort boat captain getting on the loud speaker or horn to warn off approaching jet skis (which happened a few times in the MIMS) rather than a “safety” boat racing up and down the course trying to do a similar thing. If you have an extremely active waterway and need safety boats to block pleasure boats then you should have enough safety boats to do so without needing to race off at top speed on an interceptor run.
As for fast extractions, so far I’ve been fortunate that all of the rescues in my swims have been non-life threatening. From my perspective the real critical element of a successful rescue are the first responders and not the second responders or evacuation team. I’d rather pay a dozen trained waterfront certified lifeguards positioned in kayaks and on paddle boards than have twice that many first/second responder volunteers in power boats for one of my races.
And yes we plan for emergency evacuation and review the plan with on-water personnel prior to every event. Going forward, I need to make sure my second responder’s watercraft are compliant for all USMS sanctioned events. Is it more work for us event directors, yes.Is USMS doing this because it is a requirement of our insurance underwriter; yes. Is USMs doing this because it does not like open water swimmers; NO!
