Smuggling boats
Discussion
That is an extremely inefficient way to get 1000hp. Why didn't they they just use inboard V8s?
I did read somewhere that the only time the navy/customs managed to catch these chaps was when they broke down which was quite often as the would highly tune the powerheads but do nothing to the driveline so exploding lower casings were quite common.
I did read somewhere that the only time the navy/customs managed to catch these chaps was when they broke down which was quite often as the would highly tune the powerheads but do nothing to the driveline so exploding lower casings were quite common.
Used to be a lot of multi- engined smuggling boats around Hong kong in the 1980s & 90's. Tai Feis & Chung Feis. The Tai Feis were big enough to carry Mercs, BMW & Land Cruisers etc in them & usually had 5-8 Mercury outboards & would do 80 Knots on the plane. The hulls were a scaled up single hull racing boat design apparently.
Difficult for the RN to catch as we had RIBs that would "only" do 60 knots. Our RIBs were more manoueverable & "accelerative", though, (and driven by RM Cox'ns) and the trick was to get a Boarding team on board to cut the fuel lines before they could get on the plane. One of my colleagues was awarded the QGM for bravery when he was attacked by smugglers & had to shoot 2 of them to survive. Never did understand why the boats were driven by the RM & the Boarding Party supplied by the RN!!!!
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/mo...
Difficult for the RN to catch as we had RIBs that would "only" do 60 knots. Our RIBs were more manoueverable & "accelerative", though, (and driven by RM Cox'ns) and the trick was to get a Boarding team on board to cut the fuel lines before they could get on the plane. One of my colleagues was awarded the QGM for bravery when he was attacked by smugglers & had to shoot 2 of them to survive. Never did understand why the boats were driven by the RM & the Boarding Party supplied by the RN!!!!
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/mo...
Ritchie335is said:
That is an extremely inefficient way to get 1000hp. Why didn't they they just use inboard V8s?
I did read somewhere that the only time the navy/customs managed to catch these chaps was when they broke down which was quite often as the would highly tune the powerheads but do nothing to the driveline so exploding lower casings were quite common.
Defence in depth concept. A single 2000bhp engine is suscpetible to any number of failure modes which will render the vessel dead in the water. In multi engine design they can take an awful lot of punishment, i.e. getting shot at, and still fhave propulsion. I did read somewhere that the only time the navy/customs managed to catch these chaps was when they broke down which was quite often as the would highly tune the powerheads but do nothing to the driveline so exploding lower casings were quite common.
I suspect a single outboard is considerably quieter than a 2000bhp engine on tickover, when they're trying to remain hidden when approaching shore.
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