Page 38: of Marine News Magazine (October 2015)

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FAST BOATS

Riders on the

Storm

It’s no shock that decking, seating and other related equipment for ‘fast boats’ is a critical ingredient for maritime security personnel.

By John Haynes shock mitigation strategy is essential for all craft In the early days of counter ‘go fast’ operations for ma- that undertake open sea transits or operate in rine police, customs and borders organisations the focus rough water. The de? nition of shock mitigation was ? rmly placed on procuring high performance hulls to A is, ‘to make a violent collision or impact less intense.’ The chase down offenders. Boat crews and enforcement of? cers search for shock mitigation has created a range of solu- were usually standing in wrap around bolsters or leaning tions. Before that, however, criminal organizations capable against padded rails. There were no seats and these hard of buying fast boats were most likely running something, core operators were using their experience, balance and leg or someone, illegal in from offshore. muscles to ride the boat.

The buyers, from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, were concerned only with how much payload they could

Go Fast Operations carry and how fast would the boat go. They soon owned

Countering a high value, high speed run required a ca- the fastest boats on the water. Seating was irrelevant and pable fast response boat with ? t crews ready for a short crews were usually standing on hard decks as any wasted sharp pursuit, usually at night, that often ended in a ‘lights space or weight reduced the all important payload. As the off’ high speed chase in the intercoastal waterways. This distance from Morocco to Spain and Bimini to Miami was a brief one on one, win or lose situation with lucrative is around 50 miles, identifying a boat capable of over 50 pay off for evasion. Hence, the history of ‘shock mitiga- knots was an important criteria.

tion’ technology can be traced back to the 1990’s and the

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