The USCG 40-foot Utility Boat

[Fred H]

COTP Houston late 50s-early 60s there were four 40s assigned:
40502-40503-40504 (all fiberglass) 40390 (wood).

 The Houston ship channel at that time had a VERY high sulphuric content and was very hard on steel hulls,I visited the station early 90s and the channel was clean enough to support marine life.

Interesting tour,lots of ship-pier-oil terminal fires , collisions,stiffs and of course the many boring harbor patrols, "hot ship" watches and escorts.Also Jerry Murdock and Ed King made things interesting.

[BuoyJumper]

Welcome aboard Master Chief and thanks for posting.  I see you were also on a couple of 180s, the Sweetbrier and the Blackhaw.  We have quite a few 180 vets on these boards and I am sure you will enjoy the 180-foot Seagoing Buoy Tender thread.

Again welcome, and thank you for your service and we'll let it slide that you know JerryM in the way back when .... 

[JerryM]

Thanks for the correction, Fred. So, if Scheina is correct that only three fiberglass 40s were made, it may be that they were specially built because of the nasty environment in the Houston Ship Channel. That makes sense when I think about how much worse my hangover was after a sober duty night at COTP than after a night of partying.

You are right about an "interesting" tour. If I live to be 120 I'm sure I'll never forget standing on the wing of the bridge of a tanker surrounded by an avgas spill hoping that my handy talkie didn't spark when I called the 40 to report approaching traffic.

[Zoomer]

My reference is United States Coast Guard Harbor Patrol Fleet 1924 - 1980, by Kenneth G. Sutherland.

Twin screw figerglass/plastic 40 footers were 40597 to 40609 built between 1963 and1966.  40'-10" length, 11'-10" beam, with 2-Cummins V-6 turbo charged 280 hp engines. Max 25 knots

Single screw fiberglass/plastic 40 footers were 40590 - 40596.  40'-8" length, 12' beam.  with one GMC 671 (four valve head) rated at 300 hp.  Max 21.5 knots.

[Fred H]

Coast Guard 40 foot Patrol Boat
An example is the US Coast Guard 40 foot patrol boat that was developed in the early1950s for law enforcement and search and rescue missions. The boats are 40 feet overallwith an 11 foot beam and displace 21,000 pounds. Twin 250 horsepower diesel(6-71s) engines produced a top speed of 22 knots. Single skin FRP construction was reinforced bytransverse aluminum frames, a decidedly conservative approach at the time of construction. Laminate schedules consisted of alternating plies of 10 ounce boat clothand 1 ounce mat at 3/4 inch for the bottom and 3/8 inch for the sides.
In 1962, Owens-Corning Fiberglass and the U.S. Coast Guard tested panels cut from three boats that had been in service 10 years. In 1972, more extensive tests were performed on a larger population of samples taken from CG Hull 40503 which was being retired after 20 years in service. It should be noted that service included duty in an extremely polluted ship channel where contact with sulfuric acid was constant and exposure to  extreme temperatures occurred during one fire fighting episode.

 NOTE: This was the Amoco Virginia tanker explosion at Hess Terminal in 1959. All 4 boats from COTP Houston were alongside for 2 days pumping foam with our trusty P-250s Eleven tankercrew and one Houston fireman died on this fire.
After the fire was extinguished we were removing the bodies and the fireman fell through the hardened foam layer we had built up over an open area in a ruptured gasoline tank. He drowned.You can't swim in gasoline!!

Total operating hours for the vessel was 11,654. Visualexamination of sliced specimens indicated that water or other chemical reactants had not entered the laminate. The comparative physical test data is presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Physical Property Data for 10 Year and 20 Year Tests of USCG Patrol Boat [Owens-Corning Fiberglas, Fiber Glass Marine Laminates,20 Years of Proven Durability]
****Hull CG 40503 ****10 YearTests -20 YearTests
Average psi 5990 6140 Tensile Strength
Number of samples 1 10
Average psi 12200 12210 Compressive Strength
Number of samples 2 10
Average psi 9410 10850 Flexural Strength
Number of samples 1 10
Average psi 6560 6146 Shear Strength
Number of samples 3 10
Figure 3. USCG Hull 40503 [Owens-
Corning Fiberglas,
Fiber Glass Marine Laminates, 20 Years
of Proven Durability]

If I recall correctly the 502-503-504 were built 1952-54. Hey it's only been 49 years ago and I have trouble rembering to zip my pants.

Yeah Jerry I remember running the 503 in 4 to 5 inches of JP5 !!!!Didn't know any better, we were all very lucky during those "OLD GUARD" days. Not real sure if the cause of some of your hangovers were the result of liberty time,"Hot Ship" watches were sometime close to the gin mills.

[BuoyJumper]

Since we've expanded the thread to include glass 40s which is okay by me, here are some glass 40-footers.

Here are CGSTA Miami's 40604 and 40605 underway.   (Retired BMC Steve Prime's photos)

Seattle's 40592 (Admirals Barge for 13th CG District) and CGSTA Miami's 40595.  (40595 Don Hanley photo)

It appears to me from the info Zoomer provided and the photos above that 40-footers 40597-40609 have a single porthole centered in the cuddy cabin.   Again from the photos above it appears that 40-footers 40590-40596 have three portholes in the cuddy cabin.

[vftb]

I remember when the first "plastics" arrived at Alameda, the coxwains all *****ed cause they were harder to dock in a cross-wind.

[Zoomer]

According to my reference 40502 - 40504 were built in '52 +'53 and were out of service '68 - 71.  Built by Anchorage Plaxtic Corp, Warren , RI  40' long, 11' 2" beam, 3' 8" draft, 190 hp 671's at 2100 rpm.

I seem to remember that 2100 was max rpm's for the 671 equipped 40's (exception being the single screw 40 that I drove) and the crusing rpm for the twin screw 40's was 1800 rpm.  1800 rpm got 'em up on step and cruised rather well.....even in choppy San Francisco Bay.  we were not allowed to take 'em to 2100 rpm unless it was a life situation....max pro.....

[Zoomer]

I remember when the first "plastics" arrived at Alameda, the coxwains all *****ed cause they were harder to dock in a cross-wind.

At YBI, the guys fought for 'em, more power.  Guess it depended on perception.  Ya, they did have more sail area but more protection for the coxswain.  Inside the cabin was roomier too, 'course as a coxswain, rarely got down there.......

[MastersMate]

If memory recalls, the 40503 was one of the fiberglass MK1 40s. I am pretty sure of the number, she was at base Miami Beach in 1969 and was one of the 40's assigned to the Presidential Security Detail, prior to the arrival of the 27' Maltese Magnums.

The SAR boat docks had either 1 or two of the "new" twin screw 40's, with the raised focsl and 1 of the single screw versions.  If I recall, the single screw version had a hydraulic starter for the 6-71, and if she didn't fire the first time, it took quite a few pumps to get the starter charged again.

An oddball fact about that early 1960s 30' UTB and the 40'UTB. The 30' footer was built and tested in the Miami to Nassau Ocean Power boat races of thet time. Pretty damned fast to keep up with those boats.  In the 60s James Bond movie "Thunderball" the prototype 30' is seen in the final sea battle.

[BuoyJumper]

The Misfit 40-foot Steel Utility Boat

Sturgeon Bay Canal's One-Of-A-Kind 40300

The 40300 at the Canal and breaking it's way through ice to CGSTA Plum Island in the 1960s.

In 1938 the Coast Guard was looking to improve the TRS 36-foot wood life boat. The high grade straight grained oak was getting difficult to locate. The Coast Guard yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland, began design work on this new all-steel 40-foot life boat.

It varied from the traditional model by having a slightly squared stern and a mid-ship pilot station. Launched as CG-5357 in July 1940, it was fully enclosed except for an open-well center pilot station with partial collapsible canvas cover. It was powered by the standard life boat engine of 120 horsepower, six-cylinder Sterling Petrel gas engine in the aft cabin. It served up and down the East Coast at various stations to evaluate the good and bad aspects of the boat for three years.

In August 1943, she was shipped to the Plum Island Life Boat Station at Door County, Wisconsin, where they had severe ice conditions. It was now numbered 40300. This boat outperformed the 36-foot woody in ice and other conditions. Its speed was 10 knots, just slightly more than the 9 knots of the 36-footer.

It was the boat of choice there and got rave reviews by many who used it. However some didn't like the center pilot station which obscured rescue vision, and claimed the ride was "strange." Others weren't ready to accept the steel construction. They preferred wood. It was re-powered with a GM 4-71 diesel engine in 1951 and an enclosed pilot house was added. Due to WWII and the demand of war-time boats and ships, this design was not continued. After WWII, design work began for the 44-foot twin diesel MLB. CG-40300 (formerly CG-5357) became a one-of-a-kind, even though 86 of the proven TRS 36 MLBs were built after it, until 1956 when the last was built. 40300 was the link between the 36- and 44-footer.

In 1979, after 39 years of service it was taken out of service, much longer service than any 36. Its career consisted of three years of sea trials at various stations on the East Coast, 33 years at Plum Island and three years at the Escanaba, Michigan Aids to Navigation Station.

In 1983 it was transferred through the GSA to the Eastern Upper Michigan Transportation Service at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and used as a utility boat and for ice breaking. Even after 39 years of excellent service, it was in exceptionally good condition. At last word it is now out of service and on display in that area.

Original Article from the late Don Nelson's website (RIP Shipmate)

[Zoomer]

They trucked up a 30 foot UTB to Lake Tahoe for use at the CG station there.  At the elevation of Lake Tahoe, that 30 boat couldn't get out of its own wake   We'd enter it in a certain boat race up there and always got the trophy for the largest wake!   It took forever to get from one side of the lake to the other.  Don't know the rational for putting that thing up there, but it was useless for SAR.

[pachesma]

The 40499 @ St Joe Mi. was the 1st of many 40' UTB's I ended up either driving or workin on there. Still had the Morse single control stations on either side of the helm platform of the coxswain flat. Backing that thing up was so S-W-E-E-T!!!

Turn around, hand on each control and as long as ya included the 3 extra seconds ya needed for them monster GM gears to shift into reverse ya could drive the thing backing up better than ya could goin forward.

If memory serves me correctly we also "outprocessed" the 458 & 509(it was either 508 or 509).

We used them 40 boats for everything. We broke ice with 'em, we regularly run 'em up on the beach , and I KNOW we used 'em in WX and sea conditions that we weren't supposed to. Never ONCE felt uncomfortable using one of them 40's.

One of the 40's that went thru St Joe, maybe the 508/509, had the dry exhaust. On a quiet nite on the lake you could hear them 6-71's barking from like 5 miles away.

About a year before I left St Joe we got a brand new 41 boat(41468). Brand new' shipped up from the yard ona trailer, hull was perfect, the 903's were nice and quiet, it moved along VERY nicely, the cabin was comfortable(even had carpet), and everything aboard her worked.

And to a person, all the boat crews missed the 40 boats.

The XO at the time, an "old salt" BM1 named Bailey, who had about 15 years driving 40's, couldn't stand the thing. I agree.

Wanna start a real arguement, lets discuss whats a better MLB, the 44 or 47???-JRC

[oldcoastie6468]

When we went on Regatta watch in San Diego, we ran the steel 40 gently onto the rocks so we could shut down the engines, watch the activities and relax.

We really relaxed, too! I radioed the station and had them call home and ask my wife to bring down the BBQ grill with some charcoal, the engineman had taken some steaks and potatoes from the mess hall, and someone else had brought some soft drinks. Siphoned a ltttle gas out of the fire pump, started the grill, and feasted, sitting in our lawn chairs watching the world pass by.

That damned "old Guard" really sucked! 

It was always a "crowd pleaser" to put your back to the wheel and bring the 40 to a dock or pier. 

[Zoomer]

Both of you reminded me of just (as correctly stated) "sweet" it was to back up one of those 40's...it was Boatswain's Mate Proof!   I did, however like the challange of the single screw 40 that I was assigned to, being plastic/fibergalss, the running rust was never there.

There were ALOT of things that we pulled off in the "Old Guard" that would NOT be even thought of today.  Guess I got in at the end of an era....I thought when I got to my first unit in 1969 that the 'ol codgers that where there was the "old guard"....now it seems I think I was pretty close to the end of the old guard in 1995....there's now way in hell these newbies could get away with half the crap we pulled...beer on ice in the toilet of the 40 boat, smoking a doobie while out on patrol....oh, there was ALOT more, more than I want to confess to.....What a BLAST!