Broome Marine Rescue debuts new boat as Dampier Peninsula road upgrade leads to influx of tourist boaties

A new Broome Marine Rescue vessel designed to deal with the unique conditions faced in the Kimberley will soon be put to work on wet-season waters, catering for an expected increase in demand on the Dampier Peninsula. The 10 metre vessel, the Redbill III, is fitted with twin Yamaha 425 outboards, which BMR project manager Andrew May said would help the group cater for rescues involving heavier boats. “Over the last few years we’ve seen a trend towards larger vessels needing assistance, and with the peninsula road now fully sealed, we’re also doing longer-range rescues,” he said. “With all that in mind, we thought it was important to move from the 8.5m to 10m vessel, which gives us far greater capacity to carry out longer search and rescues.” The boat and its trailer were specially designed to deal with the tricky launching facilities and tides in Broome, which Mr May said had significant impacts on rescues. He said without a proper launching facility in Broome, poor conditions could lead to the boat needing to be towed to Gantheaume Point, adding nearly 20 minutes to any operation. “The move to the 10m vessel meant an increase in weight to more than 4.5 tonnes, which moved us into Federal licensing laws and meant we required air braking and an increase from 350mm above ground keel to 600mm,” Mr May said. “This basically meant to launch we would need to reverse into the water until we had 600mm of water under the vessel, greatly increasing the chance of getting bogged, increasing maintenance on equipment and shortening its lifespan.” These issues led trailer builder, Duralite Trailers, to work on a unique electric to hydraulic-braked six tonne trailer with a keel height of 400mm, which Mr May said was the only one of its kind in Australia.