Restored WWII motorboats on display at Portsmouth

Saw them on BBC Breakfast this morning. Absolutely glorious machines in every respect. Wonderful.

It was on the 1 o’clock BBC News today.

The original specification for HSL-102 says three Napier Sea Lion engines and according to the former owner’s website they are still fitted and HSL-102 is still capable of 39 knots…

…it would be nice if that was down to three Napier Sea Lion engines! :diablo:

Built in 1942 MGB-81 was originally fitted with three ‘1250hp Packard petrol engines’. Would these have been Packard Merlins?

http://www.warboats.co.uk/index.htm

To be accurate

1 x RAF High-Speed Rescue launch from the late 1930s

1 x Royal Navy Motor Gun Boat (MGB)

Moggy

Built in 1942 MGB-81 was originally fitted with three ‘1250hp Packard petrol engines’. Would these have been Packard Merlins?

http://www.warboats.co.uk/index.htm

I think they were a development of a V-12 from an earlier war – the Liberty engine

Always felt it’s a shame that there don’t appear to be any of the archetypical Vosper-designed 72′ MTBs (as per the Airfix kit) in preservation. Do any still exist as houseboats which seems to be the well trodden path to preservation. There was a recently refurbished houseboat which had been an MTB in Grand Designs magazine but you didn’t see enough to confirm if it was one of the Vospers

I think they were a development of a V-12 from an earlier war – the Liberty engine

No, the Packard 4M-2500 as per the MTB’s was a clean sheet of paper design, not a development of the Liberty.

It was a four-stroke, 60-degree V-12 with an aluminum block with a bore of 6.04 inches and a 6.50-inch stroke, which brought it to 2,490 cubic inches. Weighing 2,900 pounds, the 4M-2500 had four valves per cylinder, a 6.4:1 compression ratio, and a centrifugal supercharger, later models were also fitted with an intercooler. A Holley 1685F aircraft carburetor supplied the fuel, 100-octane gasoline, fired by two spark plugs per cylinder. The first engines developed 1,200hp, but improved versions with higher boost levels nominally made 1,500hp. Packard built 14,000 marine engines during the war, for the US Elco and Higgins PT’s as well as out Vosper ‘Dog Boats’.
The 3 x V12’s could consume the entire contents of a PT boats 5000 gal fuel tank of aviation fuel in one night of operations 😮

One of my late Uncles spent most of the war as a Oerlikon gunner on the RN MTB’s in the Med, and regaled great stories to me when a youngster.

There’s a least one seaworthy Vosper around, but reengined I beleive. I remember seeing it power up the Medway at a Chatham Navy day show about 10 years ago.
There’s a restored sea worthy US PT boat out in the states somehwere as well, that I think does have working Packards.

Great stuff! Something I think a lot of people, myself included,wouldnt normally think about! so its great that they are now going to be part of a display which will increase people’s awareness of past events!

There’s a least one seaworthy Vosper around, but reengined I beleive. I remember seeing it power up the Medway at a Chatham Navy day show about 10 years ago.

Possibly MTB102 ?

http://www.mtb102.com/

Always felt it’s a shame that there don’t appear to be any of the archetypical Vosper-designed 72′ MTBs (as per the Airfix kit) in preservation. Do any still exist as houseboats which seems to be the well trodden path to preservation.

When I was a nipper in the ’60’s there used to be a slew of them in the creeks between Fareham & Southampton…..Which I think is where that restored German E Boat was *discovered*

This one??
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30977019/

This one??
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30977019/

No – that’s Kevin Wheatcroft’s, S130, which came from Germany via the British Military Powerboat Trust.

I think it might have been S97 – it nearly made it into preservation and restoration but it was so far gone that it was subsequently broken up.

http://www.prinzeugen.com/S97.htm