Boat, 25' Motor Surfboat
25-Foot Motor Surfboat (Shore version)
Number: 253301 through 253317
Completed: 1969-1970
Remarks: Stationed throughout the US
________________________________________________________________________________
Cost: $16,300 (1967)
Hull
Displacement (lbs): 7,410 fully loaded
Length: 25’ 8"
Beam: 7’ 1"
Draft: 2’ 1" (max)
Machinery
Main Engines: 1 General Motors diesel
BHP: 80
Propellers: single
Performance
Max Sustained: 11 knots, 60 mile radius
Logistics
Fuel Oil (95%): 30
Complement: 3 (1980)
Electronics
Radar: N/A
Design
Given the difficulties experienced with the 22’ Bartender type MRBs and the slow progress in developing the MRBX, the Coast Guard opted to convert a number of cutter-based standard motor surfboats into a shore-based version that would serve as an interim type of motor rescue boat until either the MRBX program was completed or another type was developed. The standard cutter motor surfboat then in use was the 26’ fiberglass hull Mark I version, which for a shore-based version would be equipped with a forward cuddy cabin to provide a little more protection for the coxswain and crew against breaking seas. So modified, this version was referred to as a Mark III type.
This boat, similar to the cutter version, was 25’8" in overall length with a 7’1" beam and a 1’10" draft. Powered by a single 80BHP GM 3-53 diesel engine, its maximum speed was 11kts. It had a capacity for 3 crewmembers plus 13 survivors.
Over the period of 1969 to 1970, a total of 17 boats were built or modified to the shore version (CG-253301-253317). Most of these were assigned to Atlantic and Pacific coast stations located at inlet entrances. Although not a very fast response boat (2-4kts. slower than the 44’ lifeboat), their rugged construction and seaworthiness made them useful adjuncts to standard rescue boat types until later replaced by the more capable rigid hull inflatable boat.
________________________________________________________________________________
25-Footer Line Drawing
________________________________________________________________________________
Sources
Boat Files, U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office.
Scheina, Robert L. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters and Craft, 1946-1990. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.
Wilkinson, William D., and Timothy R. Dring. American Coastal Rescue Craft: A Design History of Coastal Rescue Craft Used by the United States Life-Saving Service and the United States Coast Guard. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009.