Does this look like an old MTB?

Thanks, Moggy.
According to a comment on my link, RTTL 2748 was at Plymouth being restored as of May 2008.
As I remember, they had 3 x Napier Sea Lion engines and could do about 33 knots flat out, with a whole lot of shaking going on, so it was a case of two hands for yourself, never mind one for the boat! The spec. says 24.25 knots, but I was assured by the crew that we reached 33 knots on several occasions.
This spec shows the dimensions:
http://www.asrmcs-club.com/BoatsWebsite/rttl1aspec.html

Moggy, I would appreciate a credit for my photograph of Rescue and Target Towing Launch 2748

Delighted to. Rectified and apologies for not having done so before.

Have you any comment on the boat we are discussing since this seems to be a field of interest to you?

Moggy

Very interesting link Peter! 😉

Moggy, I would appreciate a credit for my photograph of Rescue and Target Towing Launch 2748, which I put up on this Librapix web site:
http://www.yourboatphotos.com/picture/number1741.asp

Mogs: could be a houseboat, but I thought these things were somewhat sought after these days for resto etc?

American PT Boats typically had three 1,200 hp Packard V-12 engines.
But they weren’t Merlins.
They were 4M-2500s, an outgrowth of the WWI-era Liberty engines.

Later versions produced 1,500 hp, double the original output of a Liberty.

Houseboat?

Moggy

How about this for the wheelhouse shape and position? 68 ft long by all accounts.

Moggy

Angles of that wheelhouse look to be about as close a match as you can get… So, whats it doing there?

ouch !! although there are wider beam canal boats here but i have never researched exact measurements

my knowledge of british cannals goes as far as fishing getting drunk and falling in sometimes all at the same time !!

Fair point. They have huge canals over there.

I just had this picture of the poor thing wedged in one of those lock-staircases designed for narrowboats.

Moggy

not a clue about french cannals but it was being built for that intention if i remember there was no intention for it to go on british ones

and the locale it is in seems a simple enough hop to france !!

At 20ft beam I am not convinced that ‘Canal Cruiser’ would be quite the right term

😮

Moggy

i was on board having a toot round one (an mtb ) whilst it was being rebuilt for a customer as a canal cruiser ( gorgeous job it was too ) and in one of the least likely places to find one

under a tarpaulined scaffolding at the side of a practicaly derilict mill just outside rochdale

premmisises of a forces equipment surplus dealer by that i mean vehicles , engines ,plant , ships compasses , n.b.c equipment etc etc

the intention for the owner was to use it as a canal cruiser on french canals

there is a distinct possibility that could be it as the one i saw was a major strip and rebuild !!

i saw this half way through the rebuild so basicaly a bare sound shell with some fittings so aprox half done that was four-five years back with one very industrious builder working on the project looking at what was left to do to finnish i’d have guessed about a year or over for one worker

so it should if completed be in good shape still

It’s just north of Hamble

Moggy

Looks like a post-war rescue and range launch to me, HSLs maybe?
Where is it?
There was one in Penryn that somebody lived on.

CD: Funny, I keep looking at that image and thinking ‘rescue launch’. How about this for the wheelhouse shape and position? 68 ft long by all accounts.

That looks a pretty close match. I was thinking 1939-45 rescue launches but I seem to remember there were more modern craft ‘RAF range launches’ (?) with aircraft names such as Spitfire, Hurricane and so on; I’m sure that some of these were retired over the years and could have found more domestic uses.

I can remember watching a history/archaeology documentary on the TV were they located the remains of J.F. Kennedy’s PT boat in the Pacific. There wasn’t much left of the original (timber) hull, but you could still see the two Curtiss P-40 powerplant lookalike engines lying side-by-side, as they have done for the last 65 years or so…

I think the original design for the Vosper boats was around three Isotta Fraschini 57 litre petrol engines each with 1100hp, but for obvious reasons these became a little hard to come by and most ended up with some Packard motors, still petrol.

This always gave the Kriegsmarine E-Boats an edge in combat as being diesel powered they didn’t blow up so readily.

Few retained such powerful engines once in civilian hands, most being fitted with lower powered twin diesels.

CD: Funny, I keep looking at that image and thinking ‘rescue launch’

How about this for the wheelhouse shape and position? 68 ft long by all accounts.

Image from Peter Langsdale (Our own Papa Lima)

Moggy

The from Moggy’s photograph the hull looks very similar in shape to an (Airfix kit) RAF Rescue Launch that I used to have.

If it is an old MTB I wonder what’s propelling it? Didn’t most British and American MTBs or PTs use V-12 aero engines – Merlins and Allison V-1710, etc?