www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, August 15, 2013 | 6 TOWARF to the rescue on Lake Ontario by Dominik Kurek Oakville Beaver Staff Spotlight "Connected to your Community" T he Canadian Coast Guard has one vessel responsible for all of western Lake Ontario. The Halton Police Marine Unit has a primary objective of enforcement. So when trouble stirs out on the water, who will come to save the day? It's likely going to be someone you least expect, perhaps a neighbour or your child's teacher or a friend of a friend. It's likely going to be a volunteer who spends his or her time out on the lake making sure those who are in distress get the help they need. "The members of TOWARF are your neighbours, my neighbours. They're policemen, reghters, EMS, teachers, accountants, all walks. They're really not any one particular group, by any means," said Richard (Rick) Bee, commander of the Town of Oakville Water Air Rescue Force. TOWARF is a volunteer unit with a crew of 75 and it has been saving lives on local waters since 1954. It was founded by the late Fred Oliver, then chief of Oakville police, later long-time Ward 2 Town councillor. The man is still highly regarded for his support of TOWARF and has a room named after him at the marine unit's headquarters. "We miss him a lot. He was ready for anything," said Rear Commander Meghan PondSmith. And nearly 60 years later, the TOWARF objective is still the same. The Canadian Coast Guard auxiliary unit provides marine search and rescue service with a primary goal of saving lives. Bee took Oakville Beaver reporter Dominik Kurek and photographer Nikki Wesley out on the lake to show just what the unit does and ran a mock rescue mission. Partway from headquarters at Oakville Harbour marina to Bronte Harbour, the 27-foot boat received a `distress call' from its radio control room. Details were given of two boaters marooned on the lake, waving their arms for help, with approximate co-ordinates provided from an imaginary observer from the Oakville shoreline. TOWARF has coast watchers who live along the lake who are given training and tools to be able to give coordinates to the Joint Rescue Communications (a marine dispatch centre). With the coordinates ready, the rescue boat's twin-V6 engines producing nearly 500 HP , propelled the boat to a speed of 31 to 32 knots. Above left, TOWARF (Town of Oakville Water Air Rescue Force) Commander Rick Bee and crew member Mike Rankin haul in a safety training dummy during a training exercise on routine TOWARF patrol. Rankin scans the water for a possible `victim.' photos by Nikki Wesley Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog) Bee assured the boat is capable of going faster than that, easily outpacing the local Coast Guard vessel. Based on the co-ordinates provided to the crew, it arrived at the datum (area of highest probability based on data of last known position). From there, the boat crew began its search. The mission sets out with the vessel travelling away from the datum in a straight line, then turning starboard 120 degrees, travelling an equal length of time and again turning 120 degrees to close the triangle and return the starting point. The boat would then continue past the datum and make another full triangle and then a third. Travelling at 10 knots, spotters on either side of the boat search the waters. A TOWARF boat would have a minimum of three crew, two spotters and one at the helm, but Bee said having four or ve individuals aboard is ideal to allow them to rotate to relieve the fatigue of staring out into the water. We found our mark -- two oating dummies -- on the rst return to the datum. Should that initial search have failed after completing three triangles, the search would begin anew with a start at a slightly different degree of travel, thus moving over new areas of the lake. The rst `victim' was an `unconscious' dummy oating in the water. By coming up beside it, Bee and his crew members pulled the dummy aboard. The second had outstretched arms, representing a conscious swimmer in distress. Beaver staffers were tasked to toss a rope to the oating gure, by throwing the sack past it so that the rope would fall to the body. Even from just one or two dozen feet away, that task is much harder than it looks. With the wind blowing, the rope in- ight and the waves unsteadying the boat, this writer and photographer Nikki Wesley were unable to throw the rope close enough to the oating dummy. Bee said it is safer, with a conscious person, to throw them the rope than to run the risk of bringing the boat right beside them, especially because a vessel bearing down on a oating person will appear much larger than it is. This is just one scenario of TOWARF rescues. The TOWARF rescue boat has a radar onboard that can pick up vessels on the water up to 24 miles away. On this cold day, no traf c was observed on the lake. Large-scale rescues could see TOWARF on p.7 NEIL OLIVER Volume 51 | Number 97 467 Speers Road, Oakville ON (905) 845-3824 Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. 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