Any "Dog Boats" Still around?

Hi

Never really considered the issue about some war boats being more "attractive" as private boats post war but how true it is, the displacement hull Fairmile A and B's do make for pleasing lines for yachts the exception maybe the lovely Whaleback that I see is still up for sale!

John Lamberts description of the Fairmile build system in "Allied Coastal Forces" is superb and somehow seems very "advanced" for its day with each boat kit broken down to individual truck loads timed to arrive at the builders when required a process common place in modern car assembly now.

 

 

  

Edited by marksaab

What I forgot to mention was that it was the extensive use of laminated materials on the "Ds" in particular that was the problem as the glues were not as good as today's, it also affected Mosquito's were joint,s failed and hundred's of Mosquito's were simply burnt after there engine's were chopped out, bearing in mind wood was a very valuable material after the War and in this area Merlin engines were tipped out of their packing cases and dumped because the wooden case was more valuable than the engine inside

The story about the Mossies is interesting, very few survive compared with "normal" planes of the same era, used similar build techniques to a lot of boats though, composite fuselage with ply/balsa/ply, wings mainly spruce, when left standing the fuselage went first the wings lasted a bit longer, in humid areas i.e. jungle, they just "un peeled" but the pilots refused to stop flying them! There is a true story about an RAF safety inspector who when he saw what state they were in simply took a saw a cut the outer wings off to stop them being flown!!

Get to the Mosquito Museum in Hatfield if you can, its a mile or so from me, very interesting!

Lots of them were at Hatfield after the war they were simply cut up with chainsaws and burnt!

M 

Edited by marksaab

Thanks Tramontana, that is clear to me now. Unseasoned wood explains their relatively shorter lifespan. The same applies to early and late 60ft GS Pinnaces and 72ft HDMLs, in addition it seems some yard's boats were generally shorter-lived than others, so perhaps some yards had better access to pre-war stockpiles than others, or simply stored and treated their stocks differently.

Jim wrote: 4.Two hulls were cut up/burned at Bowling Harbour about 10 years ago,  one was "Whale back" the other i'm sure was a early MGB (Metal plates were guns would go?)

I know this an old thread, but thought I'd update on what happened to these. The MGB was actually an Air Sea Rescue boat, possibly a 100 type, though I recall a step in the deck in line with the wheel-house. She was called the Luckey Dollar (yes, spelled wrong) and we helped raise her when she sank in the upper basin. When the harbour was cleared of old boats to be drained for repair work, she was towed up to Paisley and sat on a mooring there. She deteriorated and was eventually destroyed. I remember being told she was the only surviving type with the original wheel-house.

The Whale-back was called Zakana. She was abandoned when the harbour was drained, and we ended up owning her. She was in a really poor state, the deck had been covered in concrete to keep the rain out and she was rotten. But we moored her in the outer harbour with a view of finding someone who might be able to save her. But during a storm she was blown on to the shore and dried out at low tide. This caused her to heal over, and when the tide came in, her open exhaust ports flooded the hull. When the tide went out again the weight of the water inside ripped the whole of the starboard side out. I have pictures somewhere. She quickly fell apart and there was nothing but a few port-holes left to save.

A sad end to two lovely boats.