My Navy brother talked about a very fast boat the British used to rescue downed pilots in the English Channel--said the speed would make out PT boats look slow. Does anyone have any information on these boats and/or a picture? It does make a lot of sense to get to the downed men as soon as possible from the cold water. Thanks
The RAF air sea rescue launches are what I think you refer....HQ RAF Mountbatten right up until 80's. I think we have a few threads on them in the archives on here. In fact a recent thread discussing them included T.Lawrence of Arabia fame who helped in the design of the upgraded faster boats in between the war years.
Depending on the type of ASRL, speed ranged from 25-39 knots, with an Elco 80-foot PT Boat good for about 41 knots - of course, top speeds could vary slightly. http://www.bmpt.org.uk/boat%20histories/HSL-102/index.htm http://www.yalumba.co.uk/Framesets/British%20Power%20Boat%20Co%20-%20page%206,%20ASRLs.html http://www.asrmcs-club.com/boatswebsite/hsltc671.html
That's it--thanks a lot. I'll copy some of the pictures and stats and show him. He was on an LCT with a top speed of about 6 knots--this must have appeared to him like the speed of light in comparison. Really is pretty fast for that large of boat. Thanks for the fast reply--Dave
High Speed Launch (HSL) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Two_63_ft_HSL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDsS9BgYV1A