New hovercraft will aid rescue efforts on thin ice

Say someone falls through Lake Minnetonka's ice in weather conditions very much like today's, and the Excelsior Fire District is the first to respond.

Last spring, rescue workers in cold-water suits would have parked their snowmobiles or ATVs hundreds of feet away and walked, then crawled, to the victim.

But this spring? They'll take their new hovercraft.

The department recently purchased the 16-foot vehicle that, using pressurized air power, travels above the ground, ice or water. It is perfect for when the ice is too thin to support another vehicle but too thick for a boat.

"The suits, the crawling -- we were putting the victims and the firefighters in more danger," said Dana George, assistant fire chief.

"This is not only a safer but a quicker way to reach people."

A $34,370 Fireman's Fund Insurance grant paid for the hovercraft and its trailer. The grant was the largest ever given to a Minnesota department, said Maurita Vincent of Fireman's Fund.

Andrew Mahoney, a Deephaven resident and insurance broker, applied for the funding after hearing that the department, whose service area includes much of Lake Minnetonka, needed the equipment.

From his lakeshore home, Mahoney said he had seen "too many people in the spring and in the fall out on the ice when it might be a little too late or a little premature. There are always a few who push the edge."

Behind-the-wheel training

Using a hovercraft safely takes training.

Members of the department have been testing their new craft since last month -- first in a farm field in Sioux Falls, S.D., where they bought it, and then each Sunday on Lake Minnetonka's ice.

They set up cones, forcing their fire crew to maneuver through smaller and smaller areas as they learned to drive the craft.

The friction's different on land than on ice or water, said Hank Graef, the volunteer fire department's boat and water coordinator. And stopping's tough, too.

"Some people say it's like a Jet Ski," Graef said. "You have to throttle up and turn 180 degrees, going back the direction you came.

"Some people just get it. But most people need time."

County has a different craft

The hovercraft is one of two vehicles now available for thin-ice conditions on Lake Minnetonka. The second is the Hennepin County Water Patrol's air boat, which it calls the "Ice Angel." A large engine, much like an airplane propeller, pushes the flat-bottomed boat across ice.

The department purchased the boat in 2000 or 2001, said Lt. Kip Carver, who has been with the Sheriff's Department for 18 years.

It had tried out a hovercraft back when Don Omodt was sheriff in the 1990s. But because of its size, the Ice Angel gave the department options a hovercraft didn't -- such as serving as a dive platform or pulling up a snowmobile that went through the ice, Carver said.

Both watercraft are likely to be used infrequently. Carver can't remember the last time the Water Patrol's was needed.

"The Ice Angel is what we deploy when it's not safe any other way," Carver said. "It's one of those pieces of equipment you hope you never have to use."

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168