LNVFD halts works on its boat until problem fixed

Cornelius-Lemley Fire and Rescue will have to wait a bit longer to start training on its newest piece of equipment - and that also means one other Lake Norman-area fire department has put its training plans on hold.

A $400,000 fireboat delivered to Cornelius-Lemley Fire and Rescue in December will be going back to the California manufacturer's plant for upgrades because the boat did not pass the department's shakedown tests on Lake Norman.

The fire department received the 37-foot Harbor Guard Boats fireboat - the first of its model sold - on Dec. 13 after flying out for the boat's sea trials on the Pacific Ocean.

However, when department representatives took the boat out on Lake Norman for a final round of sea trials with Harbor Guard representatives on Dec. 15, they immediately noticed it did not perform nearly as well as it should have.

"It just acted like it was way underpowered," CLFR Capt. Greg Shanner said. "Like it just wouldn't get up to speed, it wasn't performing through turns like it should be and with it costing so much we wanted to make sure it was right before we signed off on $400,000 of taxpayer dollars."

According to Shanner, the boat had plenty of motor from its twin Cummins engines, but since it came out heavier than Harbor Guard anticipated in its design, the UltraJet jet drives are not moving the volume of water needed for the boat to plane and go full speed.

Salt water is more buoyant that fresh water, Shanner said Harbor Guard explained, and because of this there is more drag, as well.

The fire department also filled up the fuel tank, foam tank, and had more men on board - all of which added more weight than was used in the California sea trials. This also does not take into account the extra 1,000-2,000 pounds they will add in fire hoses and equipment.

"Between the two of those, it's just not performing like it should," Shanner said.

According to Harbor Guard vice-president of sales Tim Spooner, the original specified weight for the boat was a little lower than the result and the added weight - even small - possibly pushed the current jet drives to their maximum capacity.

By upgrading them to a larger HamiltonJet jet drive (whom they originally had chosen, but changed to UltraJet due to a six-month lead time), the boat will be able to handle the extra 2,000 pounds, which Spooner said Harbor Guard did not know was going to be added when designing the jet drives.

The amount of displacement the current drives are meant for is not as high as the ones that will be put on. The new boat's impeller is a couple of inches larger than the one on the boat now, which will give the boat more thrust and the ability to handle more weight, Spooner explained.

CLFR, the town of Cornelius via town attorney Bill Brown and Harbor Guard are now currently working on good solutions to have the problem fixed. This entails coming to a written agreement stating what will be done to repair the boat and when it will be done.

"We ultimately are going to make sure from the towns standpoint whatever we agreed to pay for in full is what we are paying for now," Cornelius town manager Anthony Roberts said. "Make sure that a performance issue is not our problem, they need to fix it."

Once Harbor Guard gets the boat back to their Costa Mesa, Calif., shop, it will take several months to make the repairs. That includes taking out the current jet drives and installing the larger ones.

"It's a job we need to do in house but I wouldn't say it's a huge undertaking. Nothing's easy when you are working on a boat (but) it's not that big," Spooner said.

However, the problems with Cornelius-Lemley's fire boat has forced officials with Lake Norman Volunteer Fire Department - which bought a similar boat from Harbor Guard - to put construction of its boat on hold.

"We stopped work on it until they figured out what was wrong with Cornelius' boat," LNVFD chief Larry Delph said. "It was initially supposed to be here in February, but since we put the hold on it until they figure out the problems ... hopefully by summer we'll have it.

"It really looks good, but they've got a few little problems. They never built anything this big before ... so we're cooperating with everybody to make sure we've got the right stuff on it. It takes a little time to get everything worked out the way we want it, because we're not going to take it if it's not doing what it's supposed to be doing."

Spooner estimated Lake Norman Volunteer Fire Department would receive the twin to CLFR's boat in March or April.

This boat currently has the deck, pilothouse and hull work done and they are awaiting the approval of CLFR's boat before putting the engine and jet drives in.

"We just want to make sure everything's correct before we do the other one," Spooner said.