SWAMPSCOTT — The harbormaster is looking to replace the engine of the town’s only harbormaster boat after it failed shortly after Memorial Day.
Harbormaster and Police Lt. William Waters said that the boat’s engine took on a large amount of saltwater and added that repairing it would be too expensive to be worth it.
“The repairs are just not worth putting money into a bad situation, and there was going to be no guarantee of reliability after that,” Waters said.
A new engine would most likely cost the town $20,000 to $25,000. In a Monday night meeting of the Finance Committee, members expressed support for the purchase and discussed the possibility of purchasing the new engine from Marblehead-based Ryan Marine Services, which diagnosed the engine issue and reportedly has an engine available that the town could purchase.
However, the purchase is subject to the town’s procurement guidelines, which require the administration to get at least three quotes before making the purchase.
“When you’re spending $20,000 to $25,000, people’s eyebrows go up,” Waters said. “The cost of these engines is a lot, but they run for many years.”
Waters said during the committee meeting that the boat and its current engine are around 15 years old. With a new engine, he said that the boat could last for a long time.
While the boat is out of commission, Waters said that the Swampscott Fire Department offered use of its boat in the case of a water rescue or other emergency. The department’s boat is smaller than the harbormaster’s, making it an imperfect solution, he said, although he expressed optimism that its use would not be required in the week or so before he expects to have the new engine.
“I’m almost kind of glad the week is going to be rainy and cloudy,” he said. “It doesn’t look like a big boating weekend, so we dodged a bullet.”
Meanwhile, Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said during the Finance Committee meeting that the problem highlighted the town’s need to have a backup plan if the harbormaster boat fails in the future. He noted that many nearby towns that have a harbormaster have more than one boat in their fleet.
“This is a unique, emergency-type vessel, and we want to make sure at all times we have that in operation,” Fitzgerald said. “It is a good lesson for us to have a good, solid plan B, and I think the harbormaster and I can come up with a few options to make sure we have redundancy.”
