Coast Guard adds surf rescue boat in LI waters

Following the outcry over the Coast Guard's removal of the Montauk Station commander for unauthorized training in heavy surf, the agency has added a second rescue boat and helmsman trained in rough seas operations there.

It is also adding a second 47-foot surf rescue boat at the Fire Island Station in response to staffing and equipment shortages identified in a nationwide agency study last year and highlighted by the removal of Chief Petty Officer James Weber at Montauk for taking two boats into the surf last summer.

Rear Adm. Joe Nimmich, commander for the Northeast, said agency policy calls for two rescue boats at many facilities designated "heavy weather" stations because of rough seas. All four stations along the South Shore are in that category, but only Shinnecock had a second boat to serve as a backup craft during training and when one vessel is being repaired.

Coast Guard policy also calls for two coxswains, or boat operators, with heavy-weather training to be assigned to every heavy-weather station. That certification allows a coxswain to operate in seas up to 20 feet but not in breaking surf.

Because of training schedules and other personnel issues, Nimmich said Montauk and Jones Beach had not had two heavy-weather coxswains. But Senior Chief Jason Walter, who was named officer in charge at Montauk last month, is a heavy-weather coxswain. So is Boatswain's Mate Second Class Derek Paulsen, who returned to Montauk Feb. 1 after serving on a cutter. Nimmich said several other coxswains at Montauk are nearing qualification for heavy weather.

Nimmich said Jones Beach also has been short on heavy-weather coxswains, but personnel there are ready to be certified. The admiral said the safety of mariners had never been compromised: Boats could be called from an adjacent station, or the agency could dispatch cutters in the region and aircraft from Cape Cod and Atlantic City.

The Coast Guard's actions have pleased the Montauk maritime community. "It certainly sounds like a big improvement," said Montauk Boatmen's & Captains Association president Stret Whitting.

East Hampton Senior Harbormaster Ed Michels, a former commanding officer at Station Montauk, said of adding the second boat that "it should have been done a long time ago. It's going to improve safety."

Weber was relieved in October after he and a subordinate took a pair of 47-footers, one on loan from the Shinnecock station, into 10- to 15-foot surf generated by Hurricane Bill in August. Weber's certification to steer in surf had expired. The other helmsman had not qualified to be in seas higher than 8 feet or in any kind of surf.

Nimmich provided new details of the case. He said Weber had requested a waiver from the Sector Long Island Sound commander, Capt. Daniel Ronan, to go into the surf. Ronan granted the waiver even though he "did not have the authority to give him that waiver," Nimmich said. "There has been disciplinary action against the sector commander."

Nimmich said Weber's most serious problem was allowing the second boat to go into the surf and never mentioned it in seeking the waiver. "If Chief Weber had not had the second boat with a minimally qualified coxswain go into the surf, there might have been a different outcome," he said.

He added that Weber allowed an unauthorized civilian on one of the boats, and the second coxswain was planning to leave the Coast Guard in two months.