By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Police Department’s Marine Unit on Tuesday secured funding to replace two motors on one of its vessels and to outright replace another.

The three-boat unit operates year-round in about 15 square miles of water off the town’s coast. Full time in the warmer months, and as needed in the colder ones.

Police Chief Foti Koskinas told Representative Town Meeting members the unit’s larger vessel, Marine 1, a 33-foot boat built in 2013, has two Evinrude motors nearing the end of their expected life span. An appropriation of $85,840 was requested to replace them.

Evinrude, once a top name in outboard motors, is no longer manufacturing.

Koskinas said of remaining choices, Mercury motors was preferred over Suzuki, which, he said, was not yet a proven product in the commercial realm.

A smaller vessel, Marine 2, a 25-foot center console 2006 Boston Whaler, will be replaced with a new boat.

That required a $362,194 request for funding.

But buying another Boston Whaler, which served the town well, is no longer an option.

“The reality is they no longer make the same boat,” Koskinas said. “They’ve stepped away from their commercial line and it’s more of a recreational line.”

The boats Boston Whaler still makes don’t meet the specifications of a marine unit like Westport’s.

That includes a collapsible towing tower, which is crucial to scoot under the Cribari Bridge on the Saugatuck River at high tide, for all incidents north of it. Also no longer offered are “diver doors” along the hull, which the crew can use to haul debris, victims, and equipment out of the water efficiently.

“It’s how we get items in and out of the boat without risking injury to officers or the public that we’re serving,” Koskinas said.

SAFE Boats International was the department’s choice to replace Marine 2. That company has an aluminum hull boat with a 15-year guarantee, Koskinas said, while two other manufacturers offered only five years.

And, he said, a foam-filled hull makes it unsinkable.

“That foam, in a catastrophic incident where the hull has completely been compromised and the boat would normally sink, that will act as a flotation device,” Koskinas said. “The other two boats do not offer that.”

Both appropriations, previously approved by the Board of Finance, were passed unanimously Tuesday by the RTM.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.