KEY WEST -- Many Mayday calls to Coast Guard Sector Key West have required massive searches because limited technology made it impossible to pinpoint the location of the vessels in distress.

''Being in the Keys, sometimes we didn't even know if the call came from the Atlantic Ocean side or the Gulf side,'' said Capt. Scott Buschman, commander of Sector Key West.

But the unveiling Monday of Rescue 21, a digital communications system, along with a faster 45-foot response boat, ''will help take the search out of search and rescue,'' Buschman said.

The two new resources also are expected to provide more efficiency and success in all types of Coast Guard missions, including marine fisheries' enforcement, migrant interdiction and catching drug smugglers.

''We like to call ourselves Coast Guard guardians,'' Buschman said. ``We will be better guardians because of this boat and communications system.''

On Saturday, Rescue 21 helped save people on a sinking sailboat near Card Sound Road, he said.

The communications system was able to give Sector Key West's command center a fairly accurate location of the vessel from its distress call.

Before, the Coast Guard would have had to launch a search of a much larger area, which takes up time and costs much more money.

''It's easier to find a vessel than a POW -- person on the water,'' Buschman said.

`GREAT LEAP'

''This is a great leap forward,'' said Chief Jeremy Williams, command center supervisor. ``Before you had to rely on people on board a sinking vessel to tell you where they are. It's not like in the movies. In the real world, people in trouble are stressed out to the max and often don't know where they are.''

Key West is only the third station in the country to receive a new response boat. The first two were delivered to Coast Guard Stations Little Creek, Va., and Cape Disappointment, Wash., earlier this year.

The three boats are serving as operation testers, covering the different marine conditions of the Florida Keys, Mid-Atlantic and Pacific Northwest.

Rear Adm. Gary T. Blore, assistant commandant for Coast Guard acquisition, said the plan is to acquire 180 response boats, with an option to increase the number to 250.They eventually will replace the aging 41-foot utility boat fleet, of which 134 of the 208 put into operation from 1973-80 are still in service.

''Taxpayers can see we take care of our assets,'' Blore said.

But like old dependable tools kept together with duct tape, there comes a time to replace them, said Rear Adm. Robert Branham, commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District.

The 45-foot response boats took four years to develop and cost an average of $2 million each. They can travel 42 knots versus 26 knots for the old utility boats.

Buschman pointed to a go-fast boat tied up to the dock at the Coast Guard station. Last week, the Coast Guard interdicted a migrant smuggling operation that had crammed 22 people on board the boat.

Buschman said the new boats should greatly enhance the Coast Guard's ability to stop illegal activity in his 5,500 square miles of coverage.

In addition to modern communications, the new boats are quieter and equipped with air conditioning and shock-mitigating seats.

The Coast Guard officers all said not to underestimate the need for such creature comforts, especially on missions lasting 12 hours or more. Many times crews are fatigued before reaching the people in need of rescue.

DISTRESS CALLS

The new Rescue 21 communications system is replacing, in phases, the National Distress System first put in place in the 1970s to receive and respond to VHF distress calls.

Rescue 21 is a multichannel digital communication, with accurate direction-finding to 20 nautical miles with a 1-watt transmission. Most vessels have 5-watt transmission.

Key West is the 16th sector to receive Rescue 21, improving the country's coastline, waterways and navigable rivers' coverage to more than 22,000 miles. Mobile, Ala., received the first system in 2006. Miami got it system in March. It is scheduled to cover 95,000 miles -- all but Alaska's rugged coastline -- by 2012.

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