The 2,000 hp inflatable...

[Bergalia]

Don't know if any of you have come across this story:

A 2,000 HP, Outboard Inflatable - not your typical trolling fishing boat.

It allegedly zapped across the English channel three times per week and was just a blur on the radar of the British coast guard and needed a specialized chopper to catch it

And when they caught it discovered on board 300 kg's. of pure cocaine!

That was three years ago when Richard Davison, the managing director of Crompton Marine, and his girlfriend, Ellen George, were arrested after Spanish authorities conducted an anti-drug smuggling investigation.

The operation seized a number of boats sold by the company and reported them to British customs officials. The two were suspected of using Crompton Marine as a front for supplying high-speed inflatable boats to illegal drug merchants, advertising them as "high-speed, uncatchable craft that have a low radar signature."

After the couple's arrest, a third party, Ian Rush, allegedly carried on their underground boat trade under the name Nautexco Marine and was also arrested. Evidence presented during Rush's trial this month indicated that Davison and George (and later, Rush) were making secret deals for boats like the one pictured here: craft between 30 ft. and60 ft. long, costing as much as £350,000 ($680,000 US), and featuring up to eight 250-horsepower engines (with a total fuel storage capacity of 15,000 litres) which enabled them to outrun pursuers at speeds up 60 knots. The craft were designed with low profiles (to avoid radar detection) and were painted grey or black to make them difficult to spot on the water.
Watch this space... too late - it's gone....

[safewalrus]

Seen that somewhere else afore on here, but not in that context! Yeah Ok it would go like **** of a shovel (handy for escaping from mauaudering Iranians especially if your using an Ipod and being driven by a WOMAN) but you need to be towing a garage to carry the fuel!!! a long lean mean machine would be able to do the job just as easily, with half the power and thus fuel reduction! earn more!! there again if your running coke (not Cocacola!!!) who cares about a few thousand pounds

[marshmat]

Apparently the smugglers who cross the Caribbean to bring the stuff into Florida use a related tactic. They buy a big fibreglass offshore speedboat in Brazil, outfit it with four of the biggest outboards they can find. Boat's probably worth around six hundred grand by the time it's ready to go. Pack the cabin with crack near Colombia, cross the Caribbean, meet up with some fast cars on a Florida beach, and just leave the boat there. It can carry $5 million worth of crack, but once it's made the run once it's considered proceeds of crime, so safer for the smugglers to just ditch it than risk the cops tagging behind next time. Apparently auctioning the things off in Florida provides a decent revenue stream for certain police departments that tend to find a lot of them.

[Crag Cay]

Ah, happy days. Trying to keep borders secure.

The people smugglers into Hong Kong in the late 70's used more and more powerful speed boats to outrun the Royal Navy. The RN's response was typical of defence procurement schemes, where to out run some skimpy little speed boat with multiple 225hp outboards, the navy bought massively over engineered RI 22 RIBS with a pair of 115hp's. Superb sea boats and all very worthy but totally ineffective for the task in hand. As there was a shortage of sailors available, it was decided that the Gurkhas should man these boats, presumably on the basis that they had never even seen the sea before in all their lives.

Next plan was to deploy the gas turbine patrol boat HMS Sabre. Good for 65 knots but still well short of catching any of the 'snake boats' in a direct chase. So next plan was to deploy a hovercraft squadron and Wessex helicopters which although faster lacked the manoeuvrability to operate in the maze of offshore islands.

The radar picket boats were supposed to be the old Ton class minesweepers, but their radars were antiquated, so things were in a sorry state until a new squadron commander arrived.

He discovered that the navy harbour tug 'Claire' had, for some reason, a brilliant radar set, so he made that his 'flag ship'. (Their t-shirts said 'Claire - Her Majesty's Tug of War'). He also order the captured snake boats to be painted grey and christened 'Son of Sabre' and used for pursuits. With some training the Gurkhas took to driving these and the RIBs at speed at night in all weathers with real aplomb. Their lack of any comprehension about the sea meant you could just tell them the essentials and they wouldn't worry about any over elaborate details.

Then a more complex scheme of chasing and ambushing was evolved where the 'Son of Sabres' and the helicopters would drive the snake boats into bays and dead ends for capture. However where the snake boat runners were seen by a helicopter to kill their 'cargos' and dump their bodies overboard, the gloves came off and Sabre would manoever to pass ahead of the culprit in a power turn at something like 50 knots, putting up a wake like Hadrian's Wall. In the dark these snake boats would run into this at up to 100 knots and disintegrate. I'm sure all these incidents were logged as ' unfortunate things that happen at sea.'

All this was without any type of electronic navigation or night vision goggles, etc, on moonless nights in the small boats. Sort of sharpens up your seamanship and pilotage.

[safewalrus]

Life on the edge!

[waikikin]

Someone once told me you can never have too much power, can't blame the builders/suppliers of these boats unless the're taking cash tax free money for em, the authoritys should be buying fom them too, only with 10 outboards! I don't know if drug runners use these in Australia, all I've heard of is abalone poachers using high power stealth boats & its ussually the licenced fishers & not the authoritys that administer the justice From Jeff.

[Frosty]

Smuggling in Hong Kong? It was not an offence to Smuggle in Hong Kong there was no way you could, it is a free port.

That was the beauty of the place,-- English management with Chineese tenacity. Singapore almost the same, flourished.

It was the Chinees that insisted the Hong Kong authorities stopped trading this way . The snake boats travelling at night time with as you say 5-6 225Hp with a couple of tons of Tvs and radios, and even the odd Mercedes.

I actually wintnesed a snake boat being stoped in Hong kong waters. I saw the police jump down onto the boat and pull back the cover. It was a Hong Kong Red Toyota taxi,-- even the taxi sign still attached to the roof. It was a tight fit.

However the illegal immigrants that wanted to come to Hong kong is a different and very sad story.

I will always remember the young couple who had tried to swim Myers bay (the most northern) As the police approached it was evident the man was dead , he had also been attacked by sharks and his legs were missing.

Retrieving to body was hampered by the girl who would not release her arms from around him.

During the day when the sun is shining In Aberdeen Harbour and the tourist are taking picture and eating ice cream these 1000 Hp monster bob in the gentle swell tied up next to the police dock.


No they had not been arrested this was there normal parking place. At the other side of the dock was the police boats.

When the sun went down it was a different matter.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Crag Cay

So next plan was to deploy a hovercraft squadron and Wessex helicopters which although faster lacked the manoeuvrability to operate in the maze of offshore islands. ......................... the gloves came off and Sabre would manoever to pass ahead of the culprit in a power turn at something like 50 knots, putting up a wake like Hadrian's Wall.

1. I did not know the reasons they stoped using the hovercraft, I had assumed it was fuel/operating cost.

2. Hadrian's Wall, funniest thing I've read all night.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by safewalrus

Seen that somewhere else afore on here, but not in that context!

I think I posted it in the "Random Picture" thread, I did not know the story behind it before now either.

[Bergalia]

Originally Posted by Crag Cay

Ah, happy days. Trying to keep borders secure.
The people smugglers into Hong Kong in the late 70's used more and more powerful speed boats to outrun the Royal Navy. .

I suppose I can now hold my hand up...But in the late 60's one of the most successful smuggling firms calling in at Hong Kong was ....The Royal Navy...
On our regular 'Show the Flag' of the 'Middle East' we would call in along the Gulf States (remember those days) and the CPO would hold a whip round among the crew (below and above decks) then slip ashore and buy what were known as 'Tollah Bars' - pure gold (it was alleged) in the form of squares not unlike in shape and size of 'After-Eight' mints. These we would transport trouble/duty free (aboard the frigate) and the same CPO would then resell them in Hong Kong for roughly twice what the crew originally paid for them.

[Crag Cay]

Smuggling in Hong Kong? It was not an offence to Smuggle in Hong Kong there was no way you could, it is a free port.

The free port allowances didn't extend to the importation of either illegal immigrants or heroin, for which there was a huge demand in Hong Kong.

******
The hovercraft unit was a ' RN Test and Evaluation' team that had been together for years with these SRN6 (?) hovercraft. They had been to the Arctic, Sahara and to the Amazon basin, etc, to prove the effectiveness of the machines. I think this was the first time they actually tried to do a proper job with them. I might be maligning them but they seemed to have been on the best 15 year 'jolly' imaginable.

******
Smuggling gold along the China coast has a long tradition. If you can find a copy of Captain William Worrall's memoirs of his life as a salvage tug skipper out of Hong Kong, (No cure - No Pay), he has several amusing stories of his days smuggling. As a deck cadet in the UK, he thought it was pretty big business to take the odd wrist watch back with him to sell when he returned home. However, he quickly realised things were done on a different scale when he arrived in the Far East.

[safewalrus]

Funny about the RN test and evaluation hovercraft team! they did a stint in the Falklands! Great sucess apparantly?!? funnily they were never used during the actual war to regain them from the Argentine's! Not much of a success then!

[Frosty]

Never seen a hover craft in Hong kong --However in the boat 4 up from me lives the comander of the royal hong Kong police force -- he should be able to shed some light on this.

I will interview the silly git when he gets up. He has food poisoning at the moment.

[safewalrus]

Whilst your at it Jack you could ask him how come it's still the Royal Hong Kong, we bailed out of there in '97. Didn't realise there where many Royals left in China!! [no Bergalia not that kind of 'Royal', bloody bootnecks get everywhere!]

[Crag Cay]

In the interests of accuracy, the Patrol Boat was HMS Scimitar (not Sabre as I wrongly remembered) and there were two RN Hovercraft not 1. But I only saw one and it operated from the surf beach at Tai Long Wan on the Sai Kung Peninsular.

From the MOD's RN Official History: "In the 1970’s illegal immigration had become a major problem in the colony of Hong Kong as a result of the cultural revolution occurring in China and subsequently the War in Vietnam.* By the end of the 1970’s the numbers of illegal immigrants had grown to such numbers that the stability of the colony was threatened. In order to alleviate this problem, HMS Scimitar (P271) was sent from the UK along with two SRN hovercrafts from Naval HTU 1, HMS Daedalus (aboard MV Happy Pioneer).

As for civilian hovercraft, well I found this from a hovercraft website talking about the HoverMarine Company: "Hong Kong Ferry Ltd took delivery of four HM216, twenty nine HM218, and four HM527 craft which carry up to 200 passengers. The first HM216 went into service on December 18, 1974.

Discovery Bay Transportation Services also purchased six used HM218. The last hovercraft service in Hong Kong ceased in 2001. The HM218's were sold on to Indonesia."