Rockport Harbormaster
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Harbormaster & Waterfront Committee Reports

Annual Reports for year ending December 31, 2012.

Rockport Harbor Department
2012 Annual Report

The Rockport harbormasters remain active in the Massachusetts Harbormaster Association and the North Shore Chapter of the MHA. Scott Story and Rosemary Lesch coordinate the training for harbormasters on the north shore which enables harbormasters to become Massachusetts Certified Harbormasters, a State requirement. This certification is divided into three components: a Captains license-6 pack or greater, the police reserve academy and the third component is training directly related to harbormaster duties.

Events of the season:
-Engine replacement of the 24’ Boston Whaler 2-200hp Etecs
-Mooring Seminar sponsored by the Massachusetts Harbormaster Association
-Missing child: early in April it was reported that a 2 year old girl may have been washed of the rocks and into the water. The Rockport Harbormasters responded immediately and spent over a week searching the waters in the Long Beach area. The Massachusetts State Police dive team was on board the Rockport Patrol boat searching for the child for the entire week.
-Early May the floats were repaired by the harbormasters and DPW, put in the water and secured in the designated harbors.
-Late in May the USCG Station Gloucester hosted a Boating Safety Day. That same weekend
Emergency Service Day was hosted by the Rockport Ambulance Department-the Rockport Patrol boat was on display along with the other emergency vehicles.
The summer months were busy with the warm weather bringing a large number of transient boaters to the inner harbor and the anchorage out in Sandy Bay.
-The Navy arrived in early July for 4 days with 5- 44’ Navy sailing vessels and their crews. Rockport is the northern destination for the training group and the town of Rockport provides a warm welcome.
-Two individual cruising clubs made Sandy Bay their destination: The Corinthian Yacht Club arrived in late July with 12-14 large vessels-both sail and power and in August the New York Yacht Club descended on Sandy Bay and the inner harbor with over 75 sail and power vessels ranging from 35’- over 100’.
The busy summer brought more people to our beaches and this summer we had one drowning and one near drowning on local beaches.
-In October the harbormasters attended an 8 hour Oil Spill training drill with the class room at the RPD Community room and the on the water exercise conducted on the Annisquam River.
-In mid October the floats were removed from the water by Great Eastern Crane and the help of many volunteers, the harbormasters and the Sandy Bay Yacht club made a difficult job go very well-this has been the case for both spring and fall float work.
Late October brought a 30-40 ton whale carcass into the Cogswell Landing off Penzance Rd. After a week the whale was washed out of that tight area and moved down to Cape Hedge Beach where it was easier to dispose of the remains.
-The first week in December the patrol boat, Alert 2, escorted Santa Clause into Rockport Harbor along with the USCG 47’ patrol boat. Santa rode onboard the 40’ “Freemantle Doctor” owned and operated by Michael Tupper.

Later in December the harbormasters assisted Senator Bruce Tarr and 104.9 FM WBOC by collecting toys from harbor departments on the North Shore and then towing the patrol boat on its trailer brought the toys, Santa and Mrs. Clause into town.

In addition to the above report the harbor department assists hundreds of boaters with: medical emergencies, search & rescue, boat fires, divers in distress, flare sightings, kayakers in distress, lobster violations and assisting whales and seals.

We thank all the town departments for making our job on and off the water a little bit safer.
 

Rockport Harbormasters
Rosemary Lesch/Scott Story

Assistant Harbormasters
Ron Petoff/Story Reed

Harbormasters.org
 


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