My first international article

Even later 😮 though i did read this article a while back, but thought i’d publicly show support and congratulations 😀 Well done Ja, top job mate. The phot’s are great!

A week late but Congratulations!! 🙂

/Dan

It is a 25mm gyro-stabilised chain gun, more than sufficient to intimidate most illegal fishermen and Toothfish poachers.

If they don’t stop after warning shots, you put shots into their rudder.

I know the guy who makes those models, he does excellent work (as you can tell). He is building a R/C model of the OPV for his own enjoyment. It will look somewhat different from mine in details but will share hulls and overall look.

I am looking forward to both of them being out on the water together.

When that happens I will post a shot.

Unicorn

Ja mate Congratulations , Great Job Mate , We need to see more write up from you in coming months and days 😎

I’ve always liked the Tenix 85m Patrol vessel. It should prove to be a great investment for the RNZN and any further naval force that opts to buy them.

Here are some decent pics of a model on the defence models site of the boat, there are pics of the other vessels if anyone is interested

I particularly love the hanger area, but again, I think they could have mounted a better gun, call me old fashioned but you need something that’s going to make someone stop in their tracks and say “Ok we give” this little pop gun can make a lot of holes but the ship will still get away.

Tenix is pushing the RNZN Project Protector boat for the deep ocean patrol boat for the Great Southern Ocean.

It might get up, possibly.

In fact that was the reason I am building a modified version of the Tenix boat in 1:72 scale.

I liked the look of the hull and thought that a version might have been a good choice for a potential (but completely hypothetical) Australian Coast Guard.

It will be interesting to see how this goes, I can see the need for the Great Southern Ocean patrol vessels, the poachers are doing the maritime version of strip mining down there, well on the way to driving some species below the capability for self sustainability, ie. extinction.

Unicorn

Yeah mate I noticed the difference too, gonna have to have a word with the guys about that, but I do know that the last Freo is scheduled to pay off in the first quater of next year (08).

There is also talk of the RAN getting a “Corvette sized” group of vessels (between 6 and 10) to help with the Patrol duties. Half the fleet are to be based in the west and the other half based in Tassie, these are to help with patroling the Southern Ocean, especially the Patagonian Tooth Fish stocks, they are to have a helo deck for operation of both UCAV’s and helo and are to have a top speed of around 45Kts and strengthened for ice work. If this is true, it will boolster the Southern sector which is in need of a major asset like this. Can’t have lengthy chaces across half the world involving other countries to help us apprehend illegal fishermen (refer to the chace acorss the Southern Ocean with an Anzac class in 2005 and the old case of the MV Pong Su in 2003).

No worries. I noticed the Patrol Boat > Fremantle section is split that way, however don’t think its kept in real time. According to the RAN website there are still 6 boats in service, however based on a DoD news release dated 7 Oct 2006 HMAS Geraldton became the 11th to have been decommissioned. So at most there could be 4 left, some more of which may have gone by now.
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/DepartmentalTpl.cfm?CurrentId=6053

Pred: sorry it’s taken me a bit to get back to you mate, been busy with a play that we recently had on.

Anyway I did a bit of digging around and you’re right, they have removed the decommissioning dates from the website. I will get back to you on these, but in the Patrol boat section of the RAN website they have the two types listed, those Fremantle class that are still in service are still on the list on the right of the page, if you go into each section and look at the “Ships news” section you might find the relevant info there, but HMAS Dubbo is still active, I saw that last week!

Pred: No the last Freo to retire will be at the end of 2007 or begining of 2008 give me the URL for this Gereman article and I will send them a message to correct it. Just refer to tyhe RAN website for the decommissioning dates for the Fleet (Freo’s and FFG’s).

Article was on MarineForum (up for a week at a time only at http://www.marineforum.info/AKTUELLES/aktuelles.htm)

Not seen any dates on the RAN website, which is good for information but seems to carry no news section.

Looks like an interesting article and I shall look forward to more reports in future!

Well done mate.

Unfortunately, once you start writing, particularly on anything controversial, the hate mail follows.

My editors don’t bother forwarding most of it on to me, the article I wrote about the PLAN and it’s future plans and capabilities holds the record in both numbers and vitriol.

There is a very good reason I write under pseudonyms.

Unicorn

Nice work! Congrats!

Thanks for the support guys, I’m really in a rush atm but here are some answers:

Tid: No I don’t speak Portugese nor Brazilian for that matter(it’s one of the few languages I have yet to master- as Terran can testify), it was an interesting process I went through with this article and any further article I do for these guys- in any case it was a good experience and I’m glad to see everyone enjoyed it.

Pred: No the last Freo to retire will be at the end of 2007 or begining of 2008 give me the URL for this Gereman article and I will send them a message to correct it. Just refer to tyhe RAN website for the decommissioning dates for the Fleet (Freo’s and FFG’s).

That looks like a good article. I don’t know Portuguese so I can’t give any sort of detailed feedback. Congratulations! 🙂

Talking about the Fremantles… a German magazine this week said the last one was decommissioned in December (namely HMAS Dubbo). This true? Thought this was not due until sometime this year when more Armidales are around. Though may make sense to have crews training for new boats due this year I guess.

Authoritive Author

Hi Ja- Well done & nice article ,I will keep my eye out for more. I had noticed you had posted on the BM Forum recently, do you speak portuguese? or have some family tie there[Just curious ,none of my business really]

Congratulations!!! 😀 😀