Garda Lake Gets New Coast Guard Patrol Boat for Year-Round Safety
The Guardia Costiera patrol boat returns to Lake Garda, and starting from June 15, it will begin its emergency response and surveillance service over the entire Benaco water surface. It is expected that the patrol boat and its twelve crew members will remain on Garda until September 30, but it is not excluded that the period could be extended to October 15, as the lake is still frequented by tourists during that time.
The service will operate 24 hours a day, and to activate it, a simple phone call to the number 1530 will suffice, from both landlines and mobile phones. A toll-free number will then be activated by the Garda Community directly at the Bogliaco operational base, where the crew and the vessel will be stationed.
The new patrol boat
The vessel is completely new, having just been launched from the Vittoria shipyards in Adria, and will have its water baptism on Italy’s largest lake. The boat, of the Cp 800 class (the Garda version will be marked with the number 833), measures 12.73 meters in length, 4.30 meters in width, and weighs 12 tons.
Equipped with two Isotta Fraschini Ll 30T2 engines, each producing 400 Kw, it can reach speeds of 30 knots and has an autonomy of 160 miles. State-of-the-art onboard instrumentation: it is equipped with rescue life rafts and is self-righting.
Exclusive service and collaboration
Garda is the first and only Italian lake to have this Coast Guard service provided by the Capitanerie di Porto Corps, thanks to collaboration initiated with the Ministry of Transport and the Navy, by the Garda Community, and supported by the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, as well as the Autonomous Province of Trento.
The recent meeting in Rome between the president of the Garda Community, Adelio Zanelli, and officials from the Ministry, as well as the commander of the Capitanerie di Porto, laid the groundwork for the Coast Guard patrol boat’s presence on Garda to become a regular and stable feature. This will represent an additional layer of safety for both Garda residents and tourists, something that cannot simply be foregone.
Carlo Bresciani