A new 23-foot airboat is now packed away in their arsenal for seasonal use. The airboat will augment the primary method of ice rescue used by the Coast Guard -- the helicopter.

Previously, ice rescue entailed organizing a three-member Coast Guard crew to drag a 14-foot aluminum skiff from the closest point of land to the scene of the rescue. The method was slow if the crew was forced to pull the skiff over ice ridges and fractures.

The Coast Guardsmen would often fall through the ice into open water, struggle to climb into the skiff and continue the trip by paddling.

On return, the crew pulled the skiff back onto the ice to haul it back. At best, this was a slow process in time-critical situations where a victim's life could be hanging in the balance. The ice skiff provided no protection from the elements for the rescue crew or the rescued victims.

"The airboat is the first fully enclosed ice-rescue craft to be used by the Coast Guard," said Lt. j.g. Rosario Russo, executive officer of Station St. Clair Shores. "The heated cab helps keep rescuers and the rescued out of the elements as long as possible, increasing survivability."

Coast Guard Station St. Clair Shores was chosen as the testbed for the new boat because of its high number of annual ice rescue cases.

During a case in 1998, crewmembers from the station and Air Station Detroit rescued 18 people from ice floes on Lake St. Clair. The area, known for high winds, can create sudden and unexpected ice fractures, resulting in large floes breaking off into the lake. Often, there are dozens of fishermen on these floes.

"This is a remarkable step up from the traditional way we perform ice rescues. The airboat can deliver a crew of three to the scene of a rescue dry, alert and ready to do their work in less time than the skiff ever could," said BMC Terry Lathrop, who is stationed at Station St. Clair Shores. "We don't have to send any of our crewmen onto the ice pulling a skiff. We now have a much faster response time."

Unlike the ice skiff that crewmembers had to pull out of the water and onto the ice, the airboat needs no outside assistance to move from water to ice.

The airboat is reputed to be able to go practically anywhere it needs to, over ice and snow or water.

"We try to keep it off of the land," said Russo. "The airboat's hull is a bonded kevlar and polyethylene that could be damaged by repeated use on dry land."

Since the airboat doesn't need much water to operate in, it is perfect for close-to-shore or restricted water rescues. The shallow draft and multiple-surface operating capability make the transport of hypothermic victims to the closest point on shore feasible. This means a faster transition from the rescue vessel to local emergency medical services during a critical rescue.

To increase response time even more, the airboat can be trailered to a location closer to the trouble, then launched without the use of a boat ramp. This can be done by two people in less than 10 minutes.

This method of getting the airboat on scene faster replaces time-intensive traditional procedures that required ice-rescue crews to patrol known hazardous areas in a government vehicle with the ice-skiff on a trailer.

As for the actual experience of riding on the new Coast Guard boat, the crew appeared enthusiastic.

"It's an exhilarating, rough ride," said BM2 Kent Williams, a St. Clair Shores crewmember. "You can feel every bump and crack in the ice. It's very strange to feel the ice break out from under the boat as it climbs out of the water."

"While the airboat has yet to be used in an actual rescue, it has been launched for several cases that had the possibility to be pretty bad, and there have been no problems," Russo said. "Right now, we're out there training our crews and waiting for our moment to shine."