Sea Tow® Wrightsville Beach has added a new response vessel based at Port City Marina in Wilmington.
According to a news release, the new vessel is expected to reduce assistance response times on the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear rivers by about one hour.
According to a news release, the new vessel is a 26-foot Twin Vee that will operate from Port City Marina. Sea Tow® Wrightsville Beach has long provided service on the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear rivers, and company officials said the additional boat will allow crews to reach stranded boaters more quickly in those areas, reducing response by times by about one hour.
The vessel expands the company's fleet to seven boats and increases coverage for boaters in Wilmington, Hampstead, Jacksonville
and surrounding coastal waters.
The franchise has operated under owner Chris Willis since 1993. General Manager Ryan Saporito oversees a team of Coast Guard-licensed captains who provide on-water assistance around the clock.
“We are proud to work with Port City Marina to further enhance the boating experience near downtown Wilmington,” Saporito said in the news release. “The addition of this new vessel improves our on-water capabilities by cutting response times which allows for even better assistance to our members and boaters in the community.”
Sea Tow Wrightsville Beach said its fleet is stationed at marinas in Wrightsville Beach, Wilmington, Carolina Beach and Hampstead, while additional vessels can be deployed from trailers as needed.
According to the announcement, the company employs a dozen Coast Guard-licensed captains with more than 100 years of combined experience. During the boating season, crews regularly patrol high-traffic waterways and inlets including Carolina Beach, Masonboro, Mason, Rich, New Topsail and New River inlets.
The expanded fleet is intended to improve response coverage across the franchise's North Carolina service area.
This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Sea Tow expands fleet with new Wilmington-based vessel
