Standing by for rescues big and small

Warm weather is here and the Port Washington marina is a beehive of activity and the steadying presence of the Ozaukee County Rescue Boat continues, as it has for more than half a century.

“We’re there every Saturday, training or doing maintenance on the boat,” Ozaukee County Emergency Management Director  Scott Ziegler, who oversees the rescue  boat operations, said.

The boat itself is a sort of tourist attraction in its own right as people walk by, curious about the boat and its crew, Ziegler said.

“Any time we are down at the dock, we’re willing to talk to anybody,” he said.

But if a call comes, the 16 volunteer members of the rescue boat are ready to respond.

The 42-foot rescue boat wasn’t put in the water until April 29, but its crew saw action before that when on April 3 a 24-foot powerboat named Reel Blessed filled with water and sank in the marina.

“We have the ability with the crew to respond with specialty equipment all year round so we can lend assistance where needed,” Ziegler said.

In that instance, the crew used large pumps to get water out of the boat while Port Washington Fire Department divers attached ropes to bring the boat to the surface.

No one was aboard the boat, which sank overnight, but the rescue boat has done plenty of lifesaving since it was created in 1952.

Calls for help range from the mundane — people out of gas — to the humorous — a father and daughter blown out to open water inside an inflatable ball marked “for inland use only” — to the life-threatening — boats swamped in storms, medical emergencies or people trapped on the harbor’s breakwater by powerful waves.

In October 2019, for instance, three people were adrift on Lake Michigan in a sailboat a few miles offshore from Port Washington. They had lost power to their engine, waves were eight feet high or more and they could not maneuver their boat into the Port harbor.

A call for help brought out the rescue boat and the crew was able help them get to safety.

“It was some of the heaviest water we’ve been in,” said Ziegler, who was on that call. “Getting them rigged in those conditions was pretty tricky. But all went well.”

Other times, their rescue efforts aren’t as successful.

Last August, a nearly week-long  search for a 29-year-old Muskego woman ended in tragedy when her body was found floating in Lake Michigan by a fisherman.

The paddle boarder had gone missing after she was last seen on the lake near Harrington Beach State Park.

The county rescue boat was one of 12 agencies that took part in the search.

The rescue boat is an extremely valuable, and in some cases essential, service.

Many boaters believe the U.S. Coast Guard will help them if they have a problem on the water, but only if the situation is life-threatening.

If you have an engine problem or run out of fuel, you’re on your own and calling a private towing service could cost thousands of dollars.

The rescue boat helps boaters with all problems — minor and life-threatening — and can usually get to those in trouble in Ozaukee County waters far faster than the USCG, since the rescue boat sits almost exactly on the service-area boundaries of the Sheboygan and Milwaukee Coast Guard stations.

Any rescue call to those stations would mean a 45-minute wait, a long time for boaters facing a life-threatening situation.

“If you’re not in imminent danger, the Coast Guard will call a tow service for you,” Ziegler said.

“One of the things we do that is not as common (among other agencies) is we will give assistance to mariners when they need a tow or are broke down. Not a lot of agencies will do that,” Ziegler said. “That’s a service we’ve historically provided.”

Boaters out of Port Washington also are fortunate because not many communities have agencies willing to go out as far as the Ozaukee County crew does.

“Many of them have a six-mile limit,” Ziegler said, because of the size of their boat and their “comfort level” regarding the weather and other factors.

In 2023, the rescue boat crew responded to 17 emergency calls, the bulk of which were breakdowns, Ziegler said. One of those was the search for the paddle boarder. Two others involved boats sinking, which they were able to prevent.

A lot of what they do, however, is educating boaters, Ziegler said, which he credits with reducing the number of emergency calls over the years.

Years ago, funding for the rescue boat was an annual debate involving Ozaukee County supervisors and Port Washington aldermen. Some supervisors from inland or south county districts complained that the county was subsidizing well-heeled yachters.

But since the county Emergency Management Office was brought under the aegis of the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office, there has been nary a peep.

The City of Port Washington used to contribute $10,000 annually to support the rescue boat, but that ended in 2017.

Now the city contributes by donating dock space, worth $4,500, and it provides a 1,200-gallon fuel allotment.

Otherwise, the boat’s operations ­­— about $27,000 — have been funded by the Sheriff’s Office and the county property tax levy.

This year’s budget included a one-time $100,000 allocation of federal grant funds to repaint the boat, a job that Ziegler said they hope to have completed this coming offseason.

Ziegler said the price involves more than just painting the boat.

“There aren’t a lot of contractors in the immediate area who do that kind of work,” he said. “It’s an all-aluminum boat so it takes some specialized knowledge and equipment to do it properly.

“That means transporting it somewhere, taking things off, putting things on, new graphics. It’s not just about painting it,” he said.

The current rescue boat was custom-built in 1998 by a boat maker in Escanaba, Mich. It replaced a 40-foot former Coast Guard boat that had been surplussed.

Recent upgrades to the service have included adding underwater sonar, training crew members as rescue swimmers and training to deliver more medical services on the water.

Most of those improvements are paid for through government or private grants, Ziegler said.

“We’ve been very good at getting  grants for equipment and donations,” he said. “The Great Lakes Sport Fishermen have been great supporters of the rescue boat for a very long time.”

The rescue boat operates much like a fire department. There are currently 16 members who are paid on call.

Ziegler, serving as the program director, and John Stuhlmacher, the deputy emergency management director, are the only full-time paid staff members. They are not paid out of the rescue boat operations fund.

Some crew members also are members of local fire departments, Ziegler said.

At least three crew members and usually four go out on each call, Ziegler said, adding he is often one of them since he lives closest to the harbor.

The longest-serving crew members are crew leaders Ray Meyer, who will reach his 30th year on the boat in 2025, and Mike Gasper, who has been a crew member for about 28 years, Ziegler said.

Ziegler said he is not actively recruiting new crew members but those interested are always welcome to contact him or talk to him and others when they are active on Saturdays or at Fish Days or during the Fourth of July holiday when they staff the boat.

“We don’t generally post job openings  on the county website unless we’re absolutely in need of people,” he said. “We’ve always maintained a pretty good number.”

He said that’s because the rescue boat has been able to maintain a healthy connection to the community.

“People are used to seeing us and knowing they can rely on us,” he said.