Victory - the Queen of the fleet

[The Heretic]

Victory: ‘the queen of the fleet’

For more than 60 years, one name was the best hope for large commercial vessels stranded or imperiled at sea off the central Oregon coast — Victory.

newportnewstimes.com

I had the honor of serving on her for a few years as the engineering petty officer back in the late 70s to about '81.

I think she was the best boat there, while I was there (before the intro of the 47' MLBs), but because of her design I got increasingly seasick when I went out on her and eventually dreaded going out on her.

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[Mikej]

Blow my mind...Only 52'! The only ways I can visualize how small that really is,.....We must shoot at 50' at the gun club. My property, across the street front is 50'. Some how all the picture i looked at, it sure seems bigger than that.

Thanks for your service!

Curse the politicians that try to lessen the numbers and stations of The U.S. Coast Guard.

 

[The Heretic]

It seems much larger when you are on it - at least to me it does - especially when compared to the 44's I also served on.

But then, it is a matter of relativity:

 

[Flopsweat]

That is a fantastic picture. Also if I were in that boat at that time I'd be checking my pants for bricks.

 

[The Heretic]

That is a fantastic picture. Also if I were in that boat at that time I'd be checking my pants for bricks.

Been there - did not do that.

 

[Flopsweat]

Been there - did not do that.

I've never claimed to be particularly brave.

 

[L84Cabo]

It's interesting that they're struggling to find a suitable replacement for the boats. For example there is the RNLI...the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which is organization that manages the lifeboat fleet for the UK. And certainly the UK has some pretty rough seas. I wonder why those boats wouldn't work for us? They certainly seem like they'd have been well proven.

Here's an article on them...

21st-century lifeboats: high-tech life-saving around Britain’s coastline

From the very first ‘unimmergible’, purpose-built boat of 1785, today’s lifeboats have come a very long way, with the latest version joining the RNLI fleet using waterjet propulsion technology for the first time, making it the most agile and manoeuvrable lifeboat yet.

eandt.theiet.org

And the RNLI has their own YouTube page. Lots of cool footage of them and their boats in action.

https://www.youtube.com/c/rnli/videos

 

[CamoDeafie]

It's interesting that they're struggling to find a suitable replacement for the boats. For example there is the RNLI...the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which is organization that manages the lifeboat fleet for the UK. And certainly the UK has some pretty rough seas. I wonder why those boats wouldn't work for us? They certainly seem like they'd have been well proven.

Here's an article on them...

21st-century lifeboats: high-tech life-saving around Britain’s coastline

From the very first ‘unimmergible’, purpose-built boat of 1785, today’s lifeboats have come a very long way, with the latest version joining the RNLI fleet using waterjet propulsion technology for the first time, making it the most agile and manoeuvrable lifeboat yet.

eandt.theiet.org

And the RNLI has their own YouTube page. Lots of cool footage of them and their boats in action.

https://www.youtube.com/c/rnli/videos

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Probably something to do with national pride

 

[Ura-Ki]

Don't let the recent rift in .gov spending, budgets, and such get you down, the U.S.C.G is actually expanding and modernizing in a major way! We have several new Motor Lifeboats in the works for the upcoming trials to select the newest cutters to take us I to the future! We are also getting new costal patrol boats, general multi purpose boats( armed) and the two biggies, both National Security Cutters, and Polar Security Cutters! The former are the Coasties version of a Destroyer, every bit as potent as the Navies best, and the later, the Polar Security Cutters being replacements for t the two 50 year old heavy ice breakers and one 40 year old medium ice breaker! All packing the latest in weapons and systems! Basically, the Coasties are returning to their WW-II era of a fully armed and integrated fighting force capable of not only defending our shores, but projecting real military power at sea! They are also moving toward a tri service integration with the Navy and the Marine Corps. To fully expand our national defences and deterrence capabilities in a fluid like seamless motion! Stragitically, this boosts our Naval forces by a large factor quickly, and allows the services time to expand their size and strength! There are YUGE ship building budgets and contracts being laid down as we speak, this is no joke serious, and just in time too!!!

 

[Mikej]

Don't let the recent rift in .gov spending, budgets, and such get you down, the U.S.C.G is actually expanding and modernizing in a major way! We have several new Motor Lifeboats in the works for the upcoming trials to select the newest cutters to take us I to the future! We are also getting new costal patrol boats, general multi purpose boats( armed) and the two biggies, both National Security Cutters, and Polar Security Cutters! The former are the Coasties version of a Destroyer, every bit as potent as the Navies best, and the later, the Polar Security Cutters being replacements for t the two 50 year old heavy ice breakers and one 40 year old medium ice breaker! All packing the latest in weapons and systems! Basically, the Coasties are returning to their WW-II era of a fully armed and integrated fighting force capable of not only defending our shores, but projecting real military power at sea! They are also moving toward a tri service integration with the Navy and the Marine Corps. To fully expand our national defences and deterrence capabilities in a fluid like seamless motion! Stragitically, this boosts our Naval forces by a large factor quickly, and allows the services time to expand their size and strength! There are YUGE ship building budgets and contracts being laid down as we speak, this is no joke serious, and just in time too!!!

You sure Kamala won't be putting a paper in front of Uncle Mumble's to sign the will be reducing funds to The Coastie's? After all, that running around rescuing people and drills on the ocean spews carbon into the air? It was not that many years ago the feds wanted to close the Newport station.

 

[Mephistopheles]

These Ukrainians could use you guys around now.



Okay that didn't work.

Not able to post liveleak.com video for some reason. Ukrainian ship breaks in half.

 

[Ura-Ki]

You sure Kamala won't be putting a paper in front of Uncle Mumble's to sign the will be reducing funds to The Coastie's? After all, that running around rescuing people and drills on the ocean spews carbon into the air? It was not that many years ago the feds wanted to close the Newport station.

Never can tell with them! Congress fought very hard to get things rolling, even the demos were on board big time! Be kinda hard for them to pull back now, especially with cancelation clauses in the billions!

 

[Flopsweat]

Never can tell with them! Congress fought very hard to get things rolling, even the demos were on board big time! Be kinda hard for them to pull back now, especially with cancelation clauses in the billions!

I don't see it as a good political tool for them right now. They're much more focused on demonizing anyone right of AOC at the moment.

 

[RedCardinalSeven]

It seems much larger when you are on it - at least to me it does - especially when compared to the 44's I also served on.

Thanks for the interesting article. I remember being amazed at how much larger the 47s seemed to me compared to the 44s even though they were only 3' longer with similar beam and displacement. I never set foot on a 52'.

 

[RedCardinalSeven]

Probably something to do with national pride

Probably more about pork to contractors and the revolving door between government-military and private companies.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Probably more about pork to contractors and the revolving door between government-military and private companies.

I think there is an actual law somewhere in there about defense contracts needing to be fulfilled by U.S. manufacturers, or at the least, U.S. sourced factories and workers, which is why F.N. Herstal, Glock, and Bae Systems has factories in the United States.

 

[The Heretic]

Thanks for the interesting article. I remember being amazed at how much larger the 47s seemed to me compared to the 44s even though they were only 3' longer with similar beam and displacement. I never set foot on a 52'.

View attachment 818118

I've never even seen a 47' in person, but yes, they do seem larger to me (the superstructure probably lends a lot to that and I think the 44's sit lower in the water), but watching the vids they also are twice as fast - probably due to having twice the HP (they are about the same weight though, despite the aluminum construction - but my bet is that they do not have as much ballast on their keel - the 44's had several tons of lead ingots on their keel to help insure the self-righting, the 44300, the first commissioned 44' had a ton more than others - we removed some of that later on) - OTOH they bob around a lot more (again probably because of less ballast on the keel?). The 44's were comparatively slow (they were supposed to go 14 knots, but few of them did and the '300 never did AFAIK, it was the slowest, in part due to the ballast, but even then when we removed much of the ballast to match the '400 weight, it still lost races).

Even McAdams said the one thing he didn't like about the 52' was that it was slow, and I can attest to that after spending many hours towing large fishing boats at 3 knots per hour thru a storm; it just seemed like we were never going to get back to port, and being seasick the whole time made it much worse.

The Victory always seemed like the safer boat to me and IIRC to everybody else that went out on her - she was the favorite of most of the coxswains and engineers.

 

[RedCardinalSeven]

I've never even seen a 47' in person, but yes, they do seem larger to me (the superstructure probably lends a lot to that and I think the 44's sit lower in the water), but watching the vids they also are twice as fast - probably due to having twice the HP (they are about the same weight though, despite the aluminum construction - but my bet is that they do not have as much ballast on their keel - the 44's had several tons of lead ingots on their keel to help insure the self-righting ...

Apparently, the 47' has no ballast. As you probably know, the 44' had a steel hull and aluminum superstructure with an open coxswain flat. The 47' has an aluminum hull and superstructure with an "enclosed bridge" plus an upper "open bridge" with port and starboard steering stations.

The weight saved on the hull and ballast allows the 47' have considerably larger crew/passenger space than the beam, height, length, weight differences alone might suggest. According to the 47' Motor Lifeboat Operator's Handbook (COMDTINST M16114.25B) personnel capacity--crew plus passengers--is 34 for the 47' versus 24 for the 44' (44' Motor Lifeboat Operator's Handbook (COMDTINST M16114.3C)) . 44' draft was 3' 6" while 47' draft is 4' 6".

Even McAdams said the one thing he didn't like about the 52' was that it was slow, and I can attest to that after spending many hours towing large fishing boats at 3 knots per hour thru a storm; it just seemed like we were never going to get back to port, and being seasick the whole time made it much worse.

The Victory always seemed like the safer boat to me and IIRC to everybody else that went out on her - she was the favorite of most of the coxswains and engineers.

I was surprised when I read in the article the huge difference in towing capacity between the 52' and 47' ("It [52'] can carry 40 survivors and tow up to 750 tons (compared to 150 tons for the newer 47- foot motor lifeboats"). 44' towing limit was 125 tons. I imagine the loss of speed and increased towing capacity of the 52' had a lot to do with specialized, heavy-duty towing propellers.

 

[Flopsweat]

One of you guys needs to tell us a cool rescue story.

 

[The Heretic]

Apparently, the 47' has no ballast. As you probably know, the 44' had a steel hull and aluminum superstructure with an open coxswain flat. The 47' has an aluminum hull and superstructure with an "enclosed bridge" plus an upper "open bridge" with port and starboard steering stations.

The weight saved on the hull and ballast allows the 47' have considerably larger crew/passenger space than the beam, height, length, weight differences alone might suggest. According to the 47' Motor Lifeboat Operator's Handbook (COMDTINST M16114.25B) personnel capacity--crew plus passengers--is 34 for the 47' versus 24 for the 44' (44' Motor Lifeboat Operator's Handbook (COMDTINST M16114.3C)) . 44' draft was 3' 6" while 47' draft is 4' 6".I was surprised when I read in the article the huge difference in towing capacity between the 52' and 47' ("It [52'] can carry 40 survivors and tow up to 750 tons (compared to 150 tons for the newer 47- foot motor lifeboats"). 44' towing limit was 125 tons. I imagine the loss of speed and increased towing capacity of the 52' had a lot to do with specialized, heavy-duty towing propellers.

Not just the props, but the engines (much lower RPM and higher torque) and the hull and the mass too. The 52' has a massive engine room compared to 44s (never seen inside a 47') and two gensets IIRC. While it is only 8' longer than a 44' it is a much more massive boat (50% more tonnage).