COPYRIGHT 2003 The Baltimore Sun
August 5, 2003

Kathy Bergren Smith Aug.

Capt. Dave DuVall is a fixture on the water off Annapolis.
Easing his bright yellow boat through the crowds of boaters in Back Creek, DuVall waves
and greets just about everyone. In his 20th year as the owner of the local Sea Tow franchise,
he goes on patrol daily, ready to offer assistance to boaters in "non-emergency" trouble.
Since 1984, a year after the U.S. Coast Guard stopped towing boaters unless they were in
danger, DuVall has made his living by keeping a cool head and solving problems, hence
the name of his boat, Distress Reliever. His Sea Tow franchise includes two boats
in Annapolis, one in Kent Narrows, and the yellow paint is drying on a fourth boat that
will serve the Cambridge area.

On one Sunday afternoon, the mouth of the Severn River is
choked with all kinds of recreational boats. Wakes from the powerboats that are zipping
and darting add an element of confusion to the 2-foot chop ruffled up by the stiff
southwest breeze. DuVall scans the scene and pronounces it quiet. Aboard the Distress Reliever,
it is anything but quiet. Three VHF radios squawk constantly, and the cell phone rings often.
Members of Sea Tow or BoatUS, another towing service that is sort of a marine version of AAA,
pay an annual membership fee and are entitled to unlimited free towing. Members will call
Sea Tow directly for assistance. DuVall says his company answers about 300 calls a year.
Many are simply vessels out of gas. If an unaffiliated boater finds himself out of gas,
or aground, he has two options. He can solicit the assistance of a Good Samaritan or put out
a request to hire help: hence the three radios squawking.

The Chesapeake Bay area is often
considered the most organized in the country when it comes to divvying up the business of
nonemergency distress calls, DuVall said. The Chesapeake Maritime Towing and Assistance
Association, of which Sea Tow is a member, has a response system that links boaters with
the help they need quickly, even if it is a competitor who winds up answering the call.
Instead of racing each other to a boater, the association members (along with the Coast Guard)
monitor a working channel on the VHF where general assistance calls are offered to the
closest towing boat.

Nearing what DuVall calls the "5 o'clock follies" one such call came
across the hailing and distress frequency, Channel 16. "This is the vessel Sea Pro.
We seem to have something entangled in our prop and we will need a tow".
Quickly, a voice responds from TowBoat/US asking the vessel to switch to the working frequency
and asks his location. "We are looking at the towers here off of Annapolis, south of the Bay Bridge"
says the Sea Pro's captain, Waymon Lefall of Baltimore. DuVall is just north, off Hackett Point
and within easy reach of the towers at Greenbury Point, so he swings the 29-foot boat around.
The TowBoat/US dispatcher puts out the call to check which patrol is closest to the Sea Pro.
DuVall comes on the radio and tells Lefall that he will be at his side in five minutes.
Assessing the vessel's exact location, he asks if the captain has an anchor out and asks
that the captain and his passenger don lifejackets. He determines that the 26- foot fishing
boat has gotten into shallow water and picked up a crabpot that is wrapped around the propeller.
The engine is completely useless. His tone is calm and reassuring as he solicits the information
he needs to begin to devise a strategy. "This could get hairy fast" says DuVall as the Sea Pro
comes into view, bobbing dangerously close to the rock-lined shore of Greenbury Point.
"The wind is blowing right into the shore and if we pick up a crabpot we will both be in trouble"
Duvall says. The depth finder on the Distress Reliever begins to sound alarms as the boat enters
the shallows. "Captain, I am going to ask you to send your crew forward to the bow to catch
my line so we can get you out of here and we will arrange our tow in deeper water" DuVall says in
measured but urgent tones. Without mishap, the Sea Pro is soon under tow and headed toward its
homeport in Bodkin Creek. "We are all adrenaline junkies" DuVall says of his fellow towboat
operators. DuVall made his way to rescue towing via hardhat commercial diving, welding underwater
in tunnels, pipelines and under bridges. But after almost 20 years, even DuVall acknowledges
the stress of keeping cool in rough situations sometimes gets to him. "It's like running a firehouse
without the budget" he says. Constantly monitoring his vessels' maintenance, directing his captains
and handling calls himself leave him little time for a personal life. "My fiancee and I rarely
go out to dinner; I sleep with the VHF on all night" says DuVall. After the Sea Pro is safely
delivered to its marina in Bodkin Creek, DuVall steps on the dock to watch as the boat is pulled
out of the water. Lefall and his crewman shake hands with DuVall and thank him. "After I went
diving to see what was entangled in my prop, I knew I wasn't going anywhere without a tow" Lefall said.
It was a good thing he didn't. When the Sea Pro was picked out of the water by the forklift,
a tangle of wire mesh, once a crabber's trap, was completely choking the propeller.
"You see now why I called" Lefall said.

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Aug 19 2010

Captain Spotlight: Dave DuVall, Sea Tow Central Chesapeake

  Capt. Dave DuVall is a water person, plain and simple. He grew up on the Chesapeake Bay. His father taught him to run boats when he was 6 years old. He was crabbing and fishing by age 12. He worked in marine construction. He attended the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. And he spent 16 years as a commercial diver before opening his Sea Tow franchise 25 years ago.

“I was getting out of commercial diving and looking for something else to do, and that was about the time that Sea Tow started up,” he recalls. “It was the right job for me. It’s not an easy job—you’re on call 24/7, basically running a firehouse without the budget or the manpower, and starting out, I did most of the work myself. But it’s a rewarding job, one where you get to help people, to have the knowledge and wherewithal to help people who are in a situation that’s usually over their head or beyond their control.”

DuVall is immersed in the lifestyle of Chesapeake Bay boaters. In addition to running Sea Tow Central Chesapeake, he helps to sponsor the annual fishing tournament put on by the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen’s Association, and he supports Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB), a nonprofit group that introduces physically and developmentally challenged people to boating. Most recently, DuVall donated 48 life jackets to the CRAB program.

“I’ve just always thought it was a good idea that people get out on the water,” he says.

What he would like to see, after 25 years of helping boaters out of jams, is more boaters learning more about, well, boating. The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and U.S. Power Squadrons offer outstanding courses, he says, and people who learn the basics could save themselves an awful lot of headaches.

“More education would prevent problems,” DuVall says. “It would prevent accidents. Boats are boats. They’re always going to break down. But people who learn to use the radio, get proper equipment like a VHF radio and a GPS, that eliminates a lot of problems. People rely too much on cell phones nowadays. You get a guy whose boat battery is dead, and then his cell phone is dying, too, while he’s trying to call for help. It’s not a good situation.”

A lot has changed during the past 25 years, and one thing DuVall says has changed for the better is the perception of Sea Tow captains like him.

“When we first started the business, we were seen as pirates,” he recalls. “Near-shore aid to boaters in non-emergency situations used to be done by the Coast Guard and the Department of Natural Resources. It was a free service, and some people thought we were coming in and upsetting the apple cart. But what people don’t realize is that in the mid-1980s, the Coast Guard could not keep providing these services with their budget. So we’ve reduced the need for the Coast Guard and the DNR to provide this type of service so they can focus on law enforcement and true emergencies. And nowadays, most people wave at us. They shout out, ‘Good to see you!’ Perception has changed tremendously. I’m proud that I was one of the people who helped to get things started.”