The Palm Beach Post

09-16-1995

Offshore Safety The Domain Of A 125-man Rescue Team

By: Chris Dummit - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Among the 50,000 expected to watch the offshore powerboats scream by Singer Island this weekend, there are 125 people who will give it their undivided attention.

These are the safety crew, the rescue personnel and volunteers who will hit the scramble button if a boat flips or nose-dives.

Some will be stationed in the crew's 22 boats. Others will be in two helicopters flying continuously over the 11.9-mile course.

Unfortunately, the chances are fair an accident will occur. There have been three accidents in four races on this year's offshore circuit, but no fatalities, according to rescue personnel. Those four races involved a total of 400 boats. About 100 boats are expected to race this weekend.

``In motorsports, it's not if you're going to crash, it's when you're going to crash. Most racers don't want to think about that,'' said Glenn Bakels, race medical and safety officer and a captain with Palm Beach County's fire-rescue department.

Bakels, who runs the Viper Motorsports Safety Team out of Port St. Lucie, has trained the local volunteer group, which includes everyone from fire-rescue personnel to novice scuba divers. Jim Poplin, head of the STARS safety team out of Chattanooga, Tenn., has imported his eight-person unit, which has worked 365 powerboat racing accidents on four circuits since 1983.

``Our biggest concern dealing with the water is if a craft is inverted and there are participants inside the craft,'' he said. ``A lot of the crafts have onboard continuous air supplies. But we can't assume that's working.''

When a canopied (enclosed cockpit) boat rolls, its occupants must either exit the boat or find the backup air supply, usually mounted behind the race in the cockpit. That supply is usually a standard SCUBA tank and regulators.

Much attention was drawn to air accessibility after an accident last November that put legendary racer Tom Gentry into a coma. Gentry's boat flipped in a turn at the world championships in Key West. He could not find the air supply and almost drowned.

For the Palm Beach race, Bakels has suggested to racers they hang chemical glow-sticks from their regulators. In dark water, the racers and rescuers will see the glow more readily.

Racer Jack Carmody, who owns the B-class Heartbeat and the modified class Carlos & Charlies boat, has designed a system for his crew that places the regulators on their harnesses just below their chins. He has also acquired life jackets that don't inflate until the crew exits the boat. That way, the buoyant vest doesn't trap the racer under a flipped boat.

Boats without canopies can eject their occupants because many are not strapped into the seats. They can die on impact or be run over by other boats.

``At the speed these boats travel, the water itself is like a wall at Indy,'' Poplin said. ``It doesn't give or compress easily. Anyone who has been skiing and has fallen face first can feel what the impact would be like.''

Such sudden deceleration sends incredible energy throughout the boat. Cars are made to disperse their energy as they scrape along the wall.

Most safety innovations such as restraint systems and canopies, which are adapted from F-16 fighter jets, are voluntary, but many racers use them. Required safety equipment such as helmets and fire extinguishers are checked before the race by Poplin.

Once the race starts, Poplin and Bakels will position their crews to respond at any point on the course. They expect to reach a downed racer within a minute.

Three of the safety boats will have doctors and sophisticated medical equipment such as defibrilators. Four others will have life-saving equipment such as airway management systems, and four others will have basic rescue equipment. Another 11 boats will hold the divers.

Bakels took his team through seven hours of pool training and a four-hour classroom session last week. And though some have never responded to an emergency before, Bakels said they're ready.

The key points on the race course will be the turns, especially 5 and 5A, Bakels said. At that point, the boats have just made a dogleg turn and are heading toward the coast and down the throats of the rescue boats.

He has assigned everyone on those boats a quadrant to watch.

``If they blink, the thing could crash and they wouldn't even know it happened until they saw the debris,'' he said. ``I've just drilled it into people's heads. They've got to have that equipment on and ready to go.''