Vintage RAF Boats

It was too late to make it to museum this time Solentspotter. I went about ten years ago & it was excellent then. Some nice cars for sale in a garage on the edge of Beaulieu though. You probably know the one I mean.

duuuuurrr! Sorry! Thought you meant in Shoreham itself!

Yeah Beaulieu is home to the National motor museum

hi there – no i didnt know there was a motor museum nearby?

I’m not sure but i think that these boats might be at Bucklers hard more during the summer
Incidently did you visit the motor museum whist you were in the area as this is where i spend my time as a museum guide.

If you want to see the UK’s largest collection of RAF launches, MTBs and even a piece of Mulberry Harbour go to the Shoreham marina er…community! In the 1960s some form of commune was set up there – all of them ex-military boats – just walk down the towpath! Must be 20+ there…all converted to houseboats!

PL The Pinnace 1374 was shown that way, in negative form, to give the effect of a night time rescue with the actual vessel involved, thanks for turning it round anyway.

For those that are interested in ASR there are several websites available but the following is one of the better ones by John Joyce, John and I go back a long way to 1958 whilst serving at Seletar, he on MCU and I on the Sunderlands.

http://www.geocities.com/aj_p_joyce/index.html

Inverted colours on P1374 photo

Hi John Cooper, I hope you don’t mind me inverting the colours on your pinnace, I think it should look like this!
I used to repair and service the radar on UK-based RTTLs in the 1960s.

Wow, some interesting little boats there. And your own personal story John was interesting and thrilling.

When I was based at RNZAF Base Hobsonville in Auckland in 1990/91 there were a couple of ex-RNZAF flying boat tenders often moored near the Hobsonville wharf, which/was is adjacent to the flying boat apron. Both were grey and little, and nicely kept. Apparently they had been sold off to private owners who used them as pleasure craft. Since they were often moored beside the base when I went fishing at the wharf, I wonder if they belonged to RNZAF personnel. I wonder if they are still going strong up there.

Another tender and rescue boat was restored by the RNZAF Museum at Wigram in the early 1990’s. It is still resident there. I remember just after the restoration was completed it was stored in the Museum’s restoration hangar, (they had half of Hangar 7). The other half, over the other side of a partition, was Camp Pack Up (a Stores unit that had all the tents and exercise gear). A mate of mine worked there, and one day he was placing a large pellet onto the topmost shelf beside the partition with a forklift. He gaffed, and the pellet of heavy equipment toppled right over the back of the shelf, smashing down onto the newly restored boat. 😮

It smashed a chunk off one rear quarter, and the restoration had to start again. Laurie was not a popular chappie in the hangar after that!! 🙂

Here’s a nice little collection of vintage RAF boots!

Ooops sorry – misread the title…….

😮 😀 😀 😮

The following two MCU boats 1374 & 2748

Pinnace 1374 below is by Zoltan Pasztor and can still be seen plying the waters around Holyhead.

RTTL 2748 is by Alex Keith, photographed at RAF Gan 1960. Today this MCU Craft can be found in the Maritime Museum at Bristol.

Thankfully 2748 was in the water on the night of March 1st 1960 at RAF Gan, Maldives when a Hastings I was travelling in ditched in the sea in a raging storm 1.5 miles short of the runway. The crew of this craft saved 14 lives that night, including mine. I was pulled aboard from a dinghy by a boat hook inserted into the back of my Mae West, half holding on to a scrambling net. my colleague was less fortunate, he was hauled aboard by his hair!

Pinnace 1374 saved the lives of 5 of the 6 crew plus the station commander of RAF Katunayake Wing Commander G C Atherton DFC and Bar, OBE, MiD.

Those of us still alive owe a great deal of gratitude to the ‘Sailors in the RAF’ for their fortitude in the conditions that nature threw at them that tempestuous night.

http://splashdown2.tripod.com

According to the website you can charter 206 & 102. 102 can take 12 passengers. That would be an interesting forum day out !

these where at the d-day departures event from portsmouth last saturday

Actually, we were both wrong about D-day. They are part of the Britsh Military Powerboat Trust which has just been set up in the area. I just found this on Google,

http://www.bmpt.org.uk/trust.htm

Has the histories of both boats on there. A very interesting & comprehensive site.

102 looks the same as the one in the Vid. It wasn’t there a month ago, so I assume it was down for the D-Day commemorations. I didn’t take any more photos, I had the German girlfriend & our son with me at the time, so had to be a bit diplomatic. She thinks my video collection (Das Boot, BofB, 633 squadron, Dambusters, etc.) are “in bad taste”.

102 HSL If this is 102 I guess that it is the same one as shown on here

http://www.patrickkempe.co.uk/Video/HSL_102.htm.

I’m not sure whether this one was based up until recently in Ipswich, if it is the same, I believe it had some connection with the D-Day landings June 6th 1944 and was used as Ikes/Montys reserve ‘flagship’.

Don’t quote me on the above as it is only from a vague memory.

Welcome back Shorty , any more photos of the boats ?? , look for a book by Wilf Pereira called ” The Boats In Blue ” , life in the RAF from a different perspective , very interesting .

Al