Help Identifying military 36 foot inverted V hull

[thedutchtouch]

other than the wings on the back those look like the same boat to me. look at that line on the bow. same hulls, one's been modified.

[cthippo]

Why don't you get ahold of the UDT / SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce FL and ask them. They should be able to redially confirm or disprove if it's a MSSC.

[mydauphin]

I didn't think the inverted v-hull design was this old. I wonder how its performance was compared to a comparable v-hull

[simeonlee]

The numbers on the hull match US Navy, 36ft Utility Boat 1969 hull# 7 of that year. I was able to contact NAVSEA, and get a set of drawings for a boat that i bought from DRMO years ago. Really cool boat by the way.

Simeon

[hinchliffe]

Hi. You could possibly be the only person who has access to info i would love to have. The hull is a Medium seal support craft as used during the vietnam war by the US Navy seals. Only ten of these unusual craft were built by Atlantic Research and details/info are very hard to find!

I will attach some of the pictures i have found so you can see for yourself, including a scan of the original brochure for the prototype "Seablazer", offered to Boat support unit 1

My interest in this hull is that i am trying to build a 1/6 scale radio control model. I would be gratefull for any pictures/dimensions you could send or post showing the hull from various angles, especially bow and transom, (where the 2 mercruisers would have been located)!

Try this link
www.warboats.org/stoner4.htm

Congratulations on owning a fine specimen.
Hope you dont mind my asking for help!

[PeterDC]

Hi I just wanted to add my comfirmation that this is definitely an MSSC! I have no expertise in this other than I have been studying every photo available of these boats in great depth for the past 4 years. After reading a book about seals in Vietnam using these boats I became obsessivly interested them and spent months scouring the internet for information and photos. I am also looking at building a large RC scale model as they just look so cool! when I came across the photos on this site a few years ago I knew instantly it was an MSSC! I would love to be able to own one of these impressive and incredibly rare boats, It would be amazing to see it restored to its former glory!! fingers crossed it's still in one piece!!

I'd be very grateful for any more photos there may be of this particular boat!
and pushing my luck here but if anyone knows if there are any original drawings anywhere that would be amazing!!!

Peter.

[hinchliffe]

Had my Hull made, it’s a beauty! Now having problems with 1/6 scale mercruiser drives! I'll try get some pics of the hull for you. As you are aware, info on this craft is rare but I'll try to help out with what I have.

I am based in West Yorkshire and have not only a GRP hull but also the mould that was produced to enable the build!

Most of my info and pictures have come from a Gentleman named Robert Stoner US NAVY (Retired) and the UDT SEAL Museum. Mr Stoner served on one of these boats in Vietnam. there is quite a lot of word docs and pictures, some of which i'm sure you already have. unfortunately, no diagrams or schematics.

Look forward to exchanging info with you.

Jason

[hinchliffe]

i have attached some pics of the pattern build, The pattern was used to make the mould, which in turn made the finished hull. i will post these asap. As you can see, the hull is 72 inches from bow to transom with a 27 inch beam. i have also made the Flotation bustle which will be attached to the transom as soon as i have the stern drives made and fitted.

[PeterDC]

Hi Jason, The hull looks amazing you have done a grand job so far! The scale makes it nice a large too! I had been looking for the outdrives too and they seem to be very hard to come by.
I've read about Bob stoner and have seen that he did indeed serve on a "Medium", The book that first got me interested in this boat was "The Element of Suprise" by Darryl Young.
it's very interesting the fact that you still have the mould, would you be willing to pull another hull off it?

All the info I have consists of around 25 photographs that I've found on the web, it's amazing what you can work out from 40 year old photos lol but I'd be happy to share what I have. I did try and locate the original builders who I believe the were a company by the name of Atlantic Research? but couldn't find much.
I had put this whole thing on a back burner till I checked back on this site a few days ago and saw there had been some more replys, I'm very glad I did now and am quite surprised there is someone else out there as interested as me! I'd love to find out what has happened to the hull in the first post as it would be such a shame to see such a historic boat "get lost".

I'm in Buckinghamshire btw.

Peter

[powerabout]

The photo shows they have Mercruiser 3 drives with club foot and if they had 427's then they were probably stock Mercruiser 325 III packages
They had 73 velvet drives so the whole package was very strong

[hinchliffe]

Hi Peter. sorry i haven't logged on for a while, been on leave for a couple of weeks. Would it be preferable to let me have your email address so we don't take up space on the forum chatting about the MSSC? About the mold, i would be happy for you to borrow it as my knowledge/experience with GRP is non-existent, i was lucky enough to find a kind Gent in Bradford, West Yorkshire, who transferred my original pattern into the mold and finished hull, (at a cost!) He has since moved to Spain. It would probably be easier for me to transfer my info onto discs or other memory medium and post it to you, some of the text documents take an hour to load onto the pc so would probably overstretch the limit of this forum! my home email is 'wackeywalker@fsmail.net' although i don't log on every day.

[hinchliffe]

As for schematics, the best i could offer would be the plans i used for the pattern build, these are hand drawn, NOT originals, but the end result seems to be satifactory.