I served with SBU-12 from
November 1983 to August 1985. I served
initially as the maintenance officer, before
becoming OIC of DET Bravo. The most significant
maintenance issue I can remember had to do with
the Detroit Diesel's turbo chargers. The turbo
charges were failing and the cost to repair them
was stiff. An Engineman and I determined that
once the engine was turned off, the oil to the
turbo charger stopped. However, the turbines
continued to spin for several more minutes. The
lack of oil lead to the turbo charger’s bearings
failing. Our suspicions were sent to NAVSEA.
They sent an engineer, who confirmed our
hypothesis. A boat alt was issued. The end
result was that the oil pump continued to
operate via the boat’s many batteries until the
temperature of the oil was sufficiently
reduced. While the engine oil cooled the turbo
charger received oil as it slowly stopped
rotating. Problem solved.
The SEAFOX was a great handling
boat. It was fast and responsive. Relatively
quiet. Stealthy as could be, especially at
night. The US Coast Guard would get reports of
a fast moving small boat of the coast of San
Diego. One night we turned off our running
lights and played cat and mouse with a Coast
Guard cutter just to see if they could find us.
As long as we did not kick up a wake they could
not see us on radar.
As others have stated, the SEAFOX
had a tendency to ‘submarine’. The Vice Admiral
who was Third Fleet at that time liked the
SEAFOX. We pulled ‘dog & pony’ duty at his
request a few times. This involved picking the
Admiral and his VIP quests up at the Flag pier
at NAB Coronado and taking them down to 32nd
Street to view the ships, then to North Island,
and some times around to the Pt. Loma submarine
base. On one occasion the Admiral requested
that we proceed from the 32nd Street
piers to NAS North Island at full speed.
Normally one would not run the SEAFOX at full
speed while in San Diego Bay. However,
Lieutenants do not argue with 3 star Admirals.
Off we went at 30 plus knots. We were up ‘on
step’ when the Admiral ordered an all stop. I
told the coxswain to bring the speed down. The
Admiral was not pleased that we did not stop
immediately. (The land mark was going by to
fast). He yelled for “all stop” from the
passenger area. I tried to explain why we
needed to bring the boat down slowly, but he
interrupted and once again order ‘all stop”.
Once again, one does not normally argue with a 3
star Admiral. I had the coxswain throttle
immediately back to stop. The Secret Service
Agent and I were standing forward on the engine
cover. As the bow dug into the bay, a large
wave went over our heads and landed on the
Admiral and his VIP guest. They were both
soaked! An unaccompanied tour in Adak, Alaska
flashed in my mind. The Admiral was very good
about it. He realized to late why his orders
were not carried out initially. He learned the
hard way about one of the negative boat handling
aspects of the SEAFOX.
If the waves were going in the
right direction, the SEAFOX could be surfed. I
once used just the engine throttles to surf from
San Clemente to Pt. Loma. Matching the speed of
the wave, one could stay just short of the
crest. A smooth ride.
We took the SEAFOX out several
times in sea-state four during our deployment in
Subic. One had to be a good boat handler, but
we could take our passengers to their desired
locations even when helicopters were grounded
due to weather. I can recall some sea stories
resulting from a couple of those missions.
The SEAFOX were new when I had
the pleasure of operating with them.
Unfortunately, the resin used on the SEAFOX did
not fair well to ultra violet light. As the
resin broke down, the fiberglass in the hull
absorbed salt water. A water logged SEAFOX must
have been a nightmare.
Bill Sherrill, CDR USN, Retired
12/20/2008
More Seafox here: http://www.warboats.org/seafox.htm
