Having SPOT Assist Maritime service aboard your boat brings peace of mind. If a motor breaks down or you run out of gas, BoatUS?Towing Services can be summoned by pressing your SPOT unit.
In the first case, which occurred in the early hours of July 4th, Capt. Lee Eckler?of TowBoatUS?Tarpon Springs, FL, received a dispatch from the BoatUS?24-hour call center indicating a mariner was summoning towboat?assistance from a location 25 miles offshore of Anclote?Key ? far beyond cell phone range. With the SPOT and BoatUS?partnership, Capt. Eckler?was immediately provided with precise GPS coordinates as well as name, contact information, type and color of boat, which was identified?as a 17-foot center console. Upon arrival on scene, he found three anglers with a dead engine ?loaded for fishing,? said Eckler.
Alone on the water, there were no Good Samaritans for miles around. Incredulously, Eckler?learned the trio had broken down long before reaching their desired destination ? a fishing spot some 60 miles out in the Gulf. ?It was a textbook SPOT dispatch case. We knew exactly were they were, which greatly speeded response times,? said Eckler.
In the second case, an angler requested towboat?assistance in the early morning hours of July 12th after his 30-foot power catamaran became disabled approximately 52 miles offshore of Tarpon Springs, FL. As with all SPOT cases, especially when contact via cell phone and VHF cannot be made, BoatUS?call center dispatchers also notified the US Coast Guard, which elected to dispatch a helicopter and response boat to verify everyone onboard was safe. Capt. George ?Red? Ingram, also of TowBoatUS Tarpon Springs, responded to the disabled vessel and towed it safely back to the owner?s dock by the early afternoon. A broken lower unit was the source of the angler?s troubles.
?When VHF and cell phones were unavailable, the SPOT satellite-based service was able to summon a towboat?for non-emergency assistance miles offshore,? said BoatUS?Towing Services Vice President Jerry Cardarelli. ?That?s a valuable communications tool to add to any boater?s toolbox.?
BoatUS Towing Services offers towing plans for freshwater lakes and rivers for just $34 annually and just $125 for saltwater, plus BoatUS or BoatUS Angler?membership of $24. SPOT units start at $99.99 plus a $99.99 annual basic SPOT service plan. To add SPOT Assist Maritime to a BoatUS membership, there is a one-time $10 SPOT Link connection fee. SPOT Assist for Maritime is available throughout the continental US as well as coastal British Columbia and select regions of Northern Mexico and the Bahamas.
BoatUS?strongly recommends boaters have a properly registered and GPS enabled DSC-VHF?radio aboard to be?able to hail the closest potential rescuers ? fellow boaters and the US Coast Guard ? in an emergency. For offshore passages, BoatUS?also recommends having an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon). For more information on SPOT Assist Maritime, visit www.findmespot.com/assist
About?BoatUS Towing Services:?Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) is the nation?s leading advocate for recreational boaters providing over half a million members with a wide array of consumer services, including on-the-water towing assistance provided by TowBoatUS and Vessel Assist. Combined, these two towing fleets offer boaters, anglers and sailors the world?s largest network of towing ports with over 300 locations and over 600 towing assistance vessels ? three times larger than the closest competitor.
Source: http://captken.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/boatus-report-32/
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