"Brave" at Gunwharf

[Vagabond]

\"Brave\" at Gunwharf

Anyone know anything about Brave?

She's at gunwharf and I think she's the last of the Brave class Navy boats.

60 knots with 3 jet, yes JET engines!

If you are down that way take a look, she's wooden and painted in royal blue and has been converted to private use.

Oh and 3 dustbin lid flaps on the back for the jets!

Quite a boat.

 

[David2452]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

I made a 1/12 scale model of the "brave borderer" class with methanol engines many moons ago mine was the KD Percassa, the real thing has 3 off Rolls Royce proteus gas turbines turning props and 2 off RR Merlin wing engines. If memory serves a couple were used as FPVs during the 70's & 80's

David

 

[petem]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

Brave Challenger has been covered here many times before including here.

 

[Talbot]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

The brave class were the last real fast patrol boats in use (with another smaller class the Dark ***). They were operational in the 60s, and escorted the first round britain power boat race (frequently letting all the boats such as Fairey Swordsman etc pass them to go to the back stragglers, and then whizzing past to go back to the lead boats.

There were a class of 3 FPBs built late 70s (scimitar, sabre and cutlass IIRC), but they were considerably slower and less capable than the Brave class.

I recall in incident in Gt Yarmouth when they needed to leave, and the boat astern refused to move while they started their engines, the Brave flashed up and had a wet start (where the unburnt fuel ignites behind the engine like afterburn in a jet fighter) The boat astern was crispy crittered!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[tcm]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

hm. Some well-off person has kindly has her fixed up in the fond belief that piling along at 60 knots in a wartime boat around the channel will be fantastic luxury fun. Whereas in a converted military boat with no guns it's very expensive and not very luxurious at all, even when at rest, cos now nice place to sit about for example. Hence the boat loiters at gunwharf having previously loitered at Lymington and elsewhere.

 

[No1_Moose]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

I seem to remember something about it being a council boat because the guy that owned it went bankrupt and it was cheaper for the council to pay for mooring it than to put him in a house....I maybe talking rubbish.

 

[ValleyForge]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

A few crossed threads on this one but I have an old model of this from Christmas 1962!

Stavros Niarchos, shipping magnate and archrival to Aristotle Onassis was responsible for commissioning this super cool luxury speedboat from Vosper.

'Mercury' as the boat was officially christened was an adaptation of the Royal Navy's Brave Class motor torpedo boats - at the time the fastest warships in the world, origins perhaps just a touch brutal for a millionaires pleasure cruiser and rather akin to a Hummer golf cart. Her three Bristol Siddeley Proteus gas-turbine engines could push her to more than 50 knots, woefully stressful on the old handmade silk deck pumps and more than enough to jar even the largest gold filling but hey, he who pays the piper as they say. This boat was less of a promotional model for Vosper than a celebratory toy for Victory & Vosper Director Peter du Cane who must have rubbed his hands with glee when he heard about this commission. Like the earlier Vosper RAF boat, this model stayed in the Victory range right up until the company closed in 1969 and was then produced by Wrenn for a short period when they bought the tooling after closure.
Sadly, although no one knew it at the time, these would be the last models in Victory's large scale promotional range.

Courtesy of mad malc web site.

 

[Vagabond]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

Great guys thanks for the info

what a forum!

 

[Solitaire]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

Bit more info on the Military Powerboat Trust forum

 

[Mirelle]

Hong Kong fast patrol boats?

The RN had some very quick FPBs in Hong Kong rather later, I fancy, to run down tai feis. A good tai fei would do fifty knots. Indeed I have an idea that the Hong Kong Marine Police have just taken delivery of some more, someone said 50kts +.

 

[No1_Moose]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

So was I talking rubbish?

 

[petem]

Re: Hong Kong fast patrol boats?

The last time Brave Challenger was mentioned here there was some speculation that the turbines no longer worked. This article from http://www.merseyshipping.co.uk (Nov 2005) might shed some light.....

The two SR-N4 hovercraft PRINCESS MARGARET and PRINCESS ANNE have been reported sold. Though the new owners have not been officially identified online gossip suggests the craft may have been sold possibly as a source of engine parts for the gas-turbine powered heritage vessel BRAVE CHALLENGER. BRAVE CHALLENGER was built as a private yacht for Stavros Niarchos based on the Vosper Thonycroft Brave Class MTB's. It requires Proteus engines as fitted to the hovercraft and can operate at speeds up to 60 knots.

Personally I find the story of this boat fascinating.

Pete

 

[petem]

Re: Hong Kong fast patrol boats?

More here (page 3)

http://www.hovercraft-museum.org/newsletters/40%20December%202005.pdf

Pete

 

[Solitaire]

Re: Hong Kong fast patrol boats?

[ QUOTE ]
The two SR-N4 hovercraft PRINCESS MARGARET and PRINCESS ANNE have been reported sold. Though the new owners have not been officially identified online gossip suggests the craft may have been sold possibly as a source of engine parts for the gas-turbine powered heritage vessel BRAVE CHALLENGER.

[/ QUOTE ]

This throws a bit more light on the issue.

 

[Solitaire]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

I heard the same thing Ross, but current evidence would seem to suggest that as being wrong!

 

[Talbot]

Re: Hong Kong fast patrol boats?

RN had Peacock class Patrol Craft in Hong Kong (not much more than mid 20 kts). and all other intercept boats were much smaller than FPBs. Nominally about 20 ft some Ribs (Atlantic 21 with twin 235 outboards - abt 55 kts with 3 people onboard I have driven these and they are scary). plus confiscated cigarette boats that were even faster. But the last true RN FPBs were the Brave Class.

 

[No1_Moose]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

actually, it might have been you that told me. I seem to remember the owner was involved in some development in Gosport that went wrong and he lost everything. Does that sound right?

 

[ValleyForge]

Re: \"Brave\" at Gunwharf

Thanks Solitaire, fascinating stuff. That shot of the original cockpit, just imagine being in that, cranking up those (3) throttles, turbines spooling up, getting up to 60 Wow. Pity about the add-on top though. Lets hope she can be rescued.

 

[Mirelle]

I was going back a bit earlier

HMS "Scimitar" was posted to HK in the 1970's.

 

[Talbot]

Re: I was going back a bit earlier

But Scimitar's designation IIRC was Fast Training Craft. She was very lightly armed (small arms + machine guns- so cannot be called a Fast Patrol Boat.