West Cork Underwater Search & Rescue

This week, we delivered our 6th Stormforce7.4m of the year to West Cork Underwater Search and Rescue (WCUSAR). WCUSAR is a charity that provides emergency services to the West Cork Coastline, carrying out underwater search and rescue activities as well as assisting community events and supporting other emergency services.

This latest delivery has been built with a dark grey hull and military grey fabric impression tubes resulting in a functional but attractive commercial look. The Stormforce 7.4 is perfect for all weather conditions and is the ideal search and rescue boat for WCUSAR.

The WCUSAR boat has a standard 315 litre inboard stainless steel fuel tank which give its twin Suzuki DF150 APX outboards a 10-hour endurance, with the redundancy and fuel crossover facilities and reliability at the fore of the design.

The DF150 engines have a full throttle operating range of between 5,000 – 6000 rpm and electronic fly-by-wire controls providing precision control with immediate shifting, making these engines are perfect to create smooth journeys.  The console mounted engine displays provide key information from engine RPM, trim, boat speed and fuel economy.

The console mounted electronics package includes a Gramin 923xsv with GT15-IH in hull depth transducer and a NMEA 200 back bone which allows communications to the Garmin VHF115i DSC radio and the two outboard engines. All the key data is available in one convenient location on this well tested Garmin platform.

Designed as a dive support boat with search and rescue capabilities the boat has a forward helm console with navigator position and ample deck space to carry divers and/or casualties. The stern mounted A frame carries LED nav lights, rescue buoys, a folding dive ladder and on the main deck there is a rack for up to 12 dive bottles.

There are many clever design features on this boat; one neat but simple feature is the 2 paddles mounted on the underside of the sponsons, convenient, tucked away and readily available when needed.

As many readers will be aware, all Redbay Stormforce Ribs are totally bespoke, no two are the same. This particular boat has the following customisations, to name but a few:

• 2 x flare boxes with poly bottles
• 2 x SOLAs ring buoys in frame mounted basket
• 1 x folding dive ladder
• 1 x dive flag holder on A-Frame
• Dive bottle rack with fin storage
• Deck drain sump with hinged access lid to protect the transducers and bilge pumps

WCUSAR was delivered by road to Cork on its new Indespension Super Roller Coaster 8 multi-roller easy launch trailer, featuring:

• 2-speed manual ratchet winch with brakes
• flush kit
• Bearing savers
• LED lighting board
• Ratchet strap and prop bag