VooDoo works on barbecue, too
January 7, 2014
Carla Bernard Sapia
January 8, 2014
Bollinger Shipyards Inc. has delivered the Charles Sexton, the eighth fast response cutter, to the U.S. Coast Guard.
“We are very pleased to announce another successful on-time and on-budget FRC delivery to the U.S. Coast Guard,” Bollinger President Chris Bollinger said in a release. “We are all looking forward to the vessel’s upcoming commissioning, as well as honoring and celebrating the heroic acts of Charles Sexton.”
The 154-foot patrol craft was delivered Dec. 10, 2013, to the 7th Coast Guard District in Key West, Fla. It will be stationed at the USCG Sector Key West.
Bollinger said the company used an in-service parent craft designed based on the Damen Stan Patrol Boat 4708. It has a flank sped of 28 knots, state-of-the-art command, control, communications and computer technology, and a stern launch system for the vessel’s 26-foot cutter boat. Senior Coast Guard officials have described the FRC as an operational “game changer,” according to Bollinger.
The FRC is named after Petty Officer Sexton, who was posthumously awarded the Coast Guard Medal for extraordinary heroism.
Sexton was on duty at Station Cape Disappointment in Washington on Jan. 11, 1991, as the fishing vessel Sea King, a 75-foot trawler, was taking on water four miles off the Columbia River bar. Four fishermen were aboard and the decks were awash. The engine room was filling up with water.
After stabilizing an injured crewmember on board, Sexton focused on dewatering the vessel.
The Sea King was so flooded; it required several pumps to remove the seawater from the engine room. After more than six exhaustive hours of Sexton manning the pumps, the Sea King rolled over without warning and threw its passengers into the agitated seas. Sexton, along with two fishermen, was trapped in the enclosed pilothouse. The three went down with the vessel.
Sister Ship of the USCGC Charles Sexton, Margaret Norvell operating in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
