Whether it is a township, city, or county, officials from areas throughout the U.S. are taking delivery of new fireboats. In many instances, the new vessels are also used for search-and-rescue and patrol duties.
METALCRAFT MARINE
In early March, MetalCraft Marine, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, had five of its 43/44s (that’s MetalCraft Marine’s FireStorm 40, measuring 43’1”x14’4”), under contract and a sixth was about to be sold to the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department, which will use it for 24/7 security as well as a fireboat.
The Fire Storm 40 design is extremely popular. “It’s been selling like a train,” is how MetalCraft Marine’s contracts manager Bob Clark puts it — ever since it won the 2020 WorkBoat magazine Boat of the Year award. Since then,
“We’ve never had less than three of them on order at any given time,” said Clark. “So much the success of that boat is directly related to WorkBoat magazine.” The design gets its 43/44 moniker because “it can be made a little longer or shorter without any real costs attached,” said Clark.
What’s new is that the 43/44 fireboat now has an outboard option. The first 43/44 to be powered with outboards came out of MetalCraft’s metal shop in mid-March and should be going to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, this summer with triple Yamaha 300 outboards mounted across its transom. The driving force for the outboard option is “cost per horsepower,” said Clark. “There are many reasons but [cost] that’s the biggest; it’s dramatically less with outboards.”
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