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
