Vessel Christened and Officers Honored

For almost as long as the 9 months it took to have the city’s new marine unit to be built, an equal amount of time  was devoted in the planning stages for the new unit.  Countless hours were spent in researching every aspect of the boat they would be designing to insure it would meet their every need for the next decade or more.

For Bob Marvin, his decades of service in law enforcement, much of which was spent on the waters surrounding Collier County and later in his  career as a marine officer for the City of Marco Island would be put to good use. As part of the team of three officers primarily assigned to the task of specifying the details regarding the craft,  Marvin, along with former Sergeant Brian Hood and Captain David Baer would take the lead designing the new boat for the  department, while seeking input from other department members.

All three of them were honored at the christening of the new boat on last Tuesday, June 15 at the Caxambas Boat Ramp and Park.  It was there at that gathering of city staff, council members and invited guests that Chief Tracey  Frazzano presented each of them with a plaque honoring their work.  “Their hard work and dedication helped to  turn the department’s desires to have a craft that would provide the men and women of the department, as well as the citizens of Marco with another tool to  help keep our officers’ safe and provide excellent service to our citizens,” said Frazzano.

The new craft will be equipped with twin 400 H.P. Mercury Outboards.  It will also have redundant electronics for navigation.  In addition to a radar system the boat will  be equipped with a 360-degree FLIR system (Forward Looking InfraRed), which allows operators to see in the darkness.

The communications electronics are the state of the art and consist of three separate radios, to include the city’s own VHF system.   During Hurricane Irma, the city’s VHF System closed the gap in communications when the county wide system suffered some outages.

The radios will be capable to talking to multiple agencies, including numerous law enforcement agencies across a wide spectrum , fire/rescue departments, aircraft and Coast Guard.  That valuable electronic component will be protected from the elements through a special housing and storage unit.

One specialty feature to be provided with this unit will be a side dive-door.  This  feature provides divers  and swimmers with a safe egress and access point away from the boats engines and propellers.  It also allows for the ease of bringing rescued personnel onboard.

Marine Officer Bob Marvin, along with now Retired Sergeant Brian Hood were given the honor of christening the new vessel with ceremonial bottle of bubbly, before they would cast off from the dock and take the first group of dignitaries on  the vessels maiden voyage.

A rigorous training and familiarization schedule will be held before the boat is finally put In service.