RPC River Patrol Craft

B

Bowdenja

Active Member
Sep 26, 2005
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Madison, MS
OK................... guys I have started TRYING to design my Brown Water Navy boats, and I have chosen to start with the one with the least amount of reference material............ yeah I'm just a glutton for pain.

Anyway I've started with the 36' RPC River Patrol Craft that was build from aluminum and armed with (4) .50 cal and (2) .30 cal machine guns. Twin screwed diesel engines.

These were used mostly by the South Vietnamese navy.

The "plans" I got only show a top view and a side profile :confused:

So I'm having to take designer liberties in how the front and back (bow and aft) of the boat will look like. I WILL need some help, opinions or whaterver.............. so post em.

I'll put some pictures of what I have done so far tonight. And also post of what I'm working with.

john
 
Thanks Lizzie................. congrats on the publication shot...........That's really Neat!

Also you are one of the ones I was hoping to be able to get some suggestions from:mrgreen:

Pics tonight!

john
 
Like I said there ain't much on this boat, I found this picture online.

Besides it, I have only 1 other that is in the Squadron Signal book Riverine. There is also a small color profile in the book and I am going to use it for mt model.

If ANYONE has any info on this craft please holler at me:wave:..............

john
 

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I see what you mean about not much on the RPC on the web. Seems like you were lucky to find that picture you posted.:)
 
Yeah Doug............. it seems I have a very good nack of wanting to do the least referenced stuffwall1

Believe me I have tried all kinds of combinations (but I still could have missed several) and have not come up with much on the way of usable information on this boat and also the other Riverine Craft from that era.

Brown Water Enterprises has and is a very helpful site and I am looking forward to his booking arriving!

john

P.S.

Do a search for C-Tractor and Z-Tech tugs.................. another one I want to do and there isn't many pictures or diagrams to use. Some nice side and top but NO bow and aft views wall1
 
OK........ home for the weekend:thumb:

Here is a copy of the "plans" I'm using to come up with this boat............

originally they are on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, but I scaled it down to 800 x 600 to fit here.

john
 

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OK....... this is truely a beta build............. kooklik I Ain't!
 

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Rpc

I don't know if you've seen US Small Combatants: An Illustrated Design History, but there's some coverage of the RPC in there, including labling it as "...one of the few outright failures of the Vietnam program." The line drawings are enlarged redraws of the one you posted, which seems to be from an ONI publication to judge by the format, but includes an inboard profile of an earlier version that wan't built. There're also some photos including one of a boat under construction at Birchfield Boiler of Tacoma, Washington. Some boats were also made by Peterson, also of Tacoma, WA. YOu might wnat to look into trying to track down either of these companies for information. HTH
 
Longshaor.......... thanks for the info. Yeah the little I have found out it said that it was too loud, did not handle river vegetation well, and was turned over the South Vietnamese Navy pretty soon after we tried it.

Funny......... but the SOC-R boat used now looks an awful lot like it.

Loopy............. right now it is in 1/48. And if I can turn this one out successfuly I would like to do as many of the other Brown Water boats as I can.

john
 
According to what my grandfather told me, two of my great uncles were involved in building and designing this general type of boat. My great uncle Joe(Joseph Herzog) started off boating on the Sacramento River. He built row boats and canoes until WWII when people with wooden boat building experience were needed to build PT boats. I'm not sure if he worked in San Francisco, LA, or Tacoma. And I don't know what he did after WWII. I think it interesting that his early experience was in delta boating. He lived in the Sacramento River delta area.

Another of my uncles, Henry Rusk married to a great aunt, designed this kind of boat. He later designed boats for Chriscraft. I hope I got that spelled right. I'm working from oral history. He was instrumental in setting up the Maritime Museum in San Francisco.
Err I guess I come from a line of people interested in small boats. My great aunt died about two years ago at the age of 104.
My grandfather worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. Two of my greatgrandfathers were carpenters. One built houses and the other did the interiors of Pullman cars. So I've got trains in the family as well.

I wonder if the Maritime Museum in San Francisco has anything on brown water boats. If one of the founding members designed this kind of boat, it might.
 
Neat Lizzie!

Tis a small world after all..................... RATS! Now I got that dang song in my headsign1

I'll check it out!

Congrats again on getting some interest and possible being published.......... That is a major milestone!

john
 
I talked to my Dad about my great uncles. It was my uncle John not Uncle Joe who built boats. He always wanted to have a boat yard and it never worked out. He worked during WWII in Bellingham. And Dad says he worked on mine sweaper boats.

Uncle Henry according to my Dad designed landing craft.
It's been fun asking about family history along with history of boat building on the West Coast.

--Lizzie
 
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