POLAND – When dive team leader David Rancourt collapsed in the Androscoggin River in November, no special equipment or extra haste could have saved his life.

But the divers who were with him that morning are haunted by the memory of struggling to lift their comrade from the icy water.

“You’re down on your knees trying to lift something at water level. You don’t have much pulling power,” said Poland fire Chief Willie Rice, a member of the dive team. “We ended up really struggling to get him into the boat.”

Rancourt later died from what proved to be a pre-existing heart condition. His colleagues mourned him and continued to ponder the inadequacies of the boat, a Carolina Skiff obtained in 2005.

The boat itself was fine. Divers could motor out onto a lake or river and get into the water where they were needed. The problems arose at the end of each dive.

“One issue the divers have always had was the difficulty they had getting back into the boat,” said Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. William Gagne. “We always had discussions about how we could hook a ladder to the boat to assist the divers getting back in.”

But the ladder concept was not feasible and there was no money for it.

The divers became accustomed to struggling their way into the boat when their work was done.

On Nov. 4, when Rancourt succumbed, the other divers scrambled to get him from the water and back into the boat. Rice had to drive the craft back to land and the awkwardness of the incident never left him.

“The issues that we had there, we really started to look at it,” he said. “How can we work on this problem and make the boat user friendly?”

The task of diving is best left in the hands of trained professionals. The task of designing new, innovative equipment is a matter for engineers.

Enter Roger Dargie, owner of Safe Approach, a Poland company that designs and builds safety equipment for businesses and agencies all over the country. Dargie was asked if he might have some ideas about how to improve access to the rescue boat.

A man known for supreme vision, Dargie first needed to know what exactly the divers wanted.

“I asked them to wave a magic wand and to come up with a wish list,” Dargie says. “I told them, ‘if you could have equipment that does exactly what you want it to, what would it be?’ And we were able to make those wishes come true.”

The result: a lightweight aluminum platform attached to the front of the boat. When not in use, the platform folds up and out of the way. When it’s needed, the ramp is easily lowered into the water where it locks into position 6 inches below the waterline. A diver, likely tired after time in the water, can easily move up the ramp and into the boat.

“We have been doing training with the boat in the past couple of months and all of the divers who have used it have nothing but positive things to say,” Gagne said. “The divers can get back into the boat with no problems and without struggling.”

Dargie also designed a roll bar for the boat, one that can be folded down if the boat needs to pass beneath a bridge or other structure. He redesigned a trailer so that it secures more efficiently to the front of the boat. Mr. Chip Signs, also a Poland company, donated time and materials by putting reflective decals on the platform and on the side of the boat.

Dargie and the others are pleased with the work, but they are also realistic. Looking back to the death of Rancourt, they know that none of it could have saved the deputy.

“It wouldn’t have changed the outcome of that, but it would have made things a lot easier for the rest of them,” Dargie said. “I’m very pleased that there are divers whose lives will be made easier in many different ways.”