The local "bar" in action, circa 1938

[Fubar512]

For those of fans the action film, "The Finest Hours", you know what a surf-boat is, and what its capabilities are. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, a surf boat is a small rescue craft that is designed to effect rescues in heavy, breaking waves, conditions that one often finds around inlets that are subject to fast ebbing tides that run against opposing seas.  This creates heavy surf, and makes those inlets all but impassable under those conditions. Here's a clip from "The Finest Hours":

 

 

This is real footage of that same class of surf boat, taken at the local inlet, in September of 1938:

 

[Silberpfeil]

Good stuff.  Several videos online about recent CG training in 44' and 47' Motor Lifeboats (MLB's).  Got to ride in a couple 44-footers in my day, but it was a lot more calm than the conditions those videos portray!  

[KJakker]

I have read and seen both the book and movie "The Finest Hours", as usual the book is better. As for surf boats and motor lifeboats, well I live next to one of the Great Lakes, as within one mile of it, and as such I have read a number of books on ship wreaks and the Life Saving Service and the USCG. I think one of the more amazing and somewhat heart wrenching ones I have read was titled "Hard Pulling for the Sand Beach Life Savers" about a crew of a 30 foot wooden surf boat that rowed some fourteen miles through 30 foot waves after rescuing a barge crew only to finally be capsized just as were a few hundred yards of safety. 

[Fubar512]

I have a lot of respect for the USCG.  They will go out in some truly hellacious conditions to rescue you, no questions asked.

 

I recall an incident many years ago, where an MLB crew out of  USCG Station Sandy Hook went out in response to a distress call, at night, and right into the teeth of a winter nor'easter. The crew of the MLB suffered a few casualties (broken bones, etc), for what turned out to be a hoax call, perpetrated by some kids sitting in the safety of their parent's driveway!

 

Of course, since then, laws have been set in place to discourage asshats from doing that: https://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg534/SARfactsInfo/SARisNOjoke.asp

[Fubar512]

Just for comparison, this is what Manasquan inlet looked like during a nor'easter in October of 2015, some 77 years later