Photo courtesy of Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala The Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office has used this rescue boat, a 21-foot Four Winns Quest, owned by the Fort Wilkins State Park in Copper Harbor, for two boating accident rescues in as many months. An open deck, center-console, deep-hulled boat, the Quest was designed for rough inland waters, making it a fast and ideal boat near-shore rescues in surprisingly rough waters.

GRANT TOWNSHIP — Keweenaw County Sheriff Deputies responded on Sunday to a report of an 18-foot catamaran sailboat that had capsized in Copper, placing two boaters at risk.

High winds and rough seas inside the harbor caused the vessel to capsize, leaving its two occupants clinging to the underside of the boat. Deputies were able to utilize the Fort Wilkins State Park rescue boat, on which the deputies had recently cross-trained.

Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala said a couple visiting the area decided to take their Catamaran out for a ride.

“The weather was pretty poor, it was pretty windy, and seas were pretty rough,” he said.

The boat capsized between Porter’s Island and the mainland, well within the bay, west of the harbor entrance, Pennala said.

“The cool part is,” said Pennala, “we’d just gotten through working with Fort Wilkins, cross-training on a boat that they had docked in the harbor.”

As a result, the response time was very short, he said, because of that.

The cross-training was part of the Sheriff’s Office working toward creating a search and rescue team, which includes deputies being cross-trained for a number of tasks, techniques and procedures.

The boat is owned by the Fort Wilkins State Park.

Bob Wild, unit supervisor for Fort Wilkins Historic State Park and Eagle Harbor State Harbor, said the boat made for a “very timely response.”

The boat, he said, is a 1993 Quest, manufactured by Four Winns, and equipped with a 200-horsepower outboard motor. The motor, combined with the hull design of the boat, makes it idea for fast responses.

The Quest series, designed originally as part of the Four Winns saltwater boat lineup in the early 1990s, was engineered and built as a seaworthy, deep-hulled boat that could withstand abuse and the high seas and rough waves encountered along coastal waters of the ocean.

“It’s only a 21-footer, so it’s not like you’re out there in a 40-footer,” said Wild, “but it’s definitely a boat that’s designed to handle the rougher waters of Lake Superior,” adding, “but I still wouldn’t want to be on it in a storm.”

The boat, he said, was transferred to the Parks and Recreation from its law enforcement division.