What is this boat used for?

[harpoon5.2]

Its driving me crazy. I want to say tug, but all those props can't work well together.

[cferger]

Drug smuggling.
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Drug-Running Boat

-chuck

[senormechanico]

Drug smuggling in Spain. There was a story about it last week.

Steve B.

[harpoon5.2]

Thanks, and thanks for the link.

[TaoJones]

. . . for sailors with little dingies.

TaoJones

[ssullivan]

I saw some nice drug runners down in the ABC's a few years back. Two brand new twin megayachts. One with a South American flag, the other with a US Flag, hailing port in CA. They pulled in at different times (but their time at the docks overlapped), they fuelded up, shuffled a bunch of stuff between the boats late at night, and left the same evening in opposite directions...

Didn't go and say hi.

[captjohn360]

wasteing fuell

[stuartcnz]

Originally Posted by harpoon5.8

Its driving me crazy. I want to say tug, but all those props can't work well together.

Surely it's obvious. The owner of this boat is very safety conscious. Even if he has seven motors break down, he still has an engine to get him back to shore!
That is provided he doesn't run out of fuel first.

[never monday]

Somethin on the order of 2400 GPH

[David_Old_Jersey]

I saw the pictures a while back before the builders got charged with involvement with Drug Smuggling and to my mind it shrieked 1980's Miami Vice style "drug smuggler" - it may well have a low radar signature and be painted to be difficult to spot.........but apart from the builders adding a 10 foot neon sign saying "Drugs Smuggler" I really can't see how they could have built somethimg that looked MORE like a boat used for Drug Smuggling

But kinda cool that they also sold some to the Spanish law enforcement

[ssullivan]

Maybe it's just me... but if I were building a drug boat, I sure as hell wouldn't have just a tiny little pilot house and an open deck. I would have made a slow going, heavy displacement craft that was inexpensive and looked like everyone else's boat. I mean how many pounds or kilos can you fit in this boat anyway without arising suspicion? A couple between your legs in the pilot house?

A great drag racer, but not a very good design for its intended use.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by ssullivan

Maybe it's just me... but if I were building a drug boat, I sure as hell wouldn't have just a tiny little pilot house and an open deck. I would have made a slow going, heavy displacement craft that was inexpensive and looked like everyone else's boat. I mean how many pounds or kilos can you fit in this boat anyway without arising suspicion? A couple between your legs in the pilot house?

A great drag racer, but not a very good design for its intended use.

Agreed!

It just shows how smart some drug runners are, NOT! They're already paranoid so they are all ready to run. And that's how they get caught. They are holding up a flag that says "Hey, look at me".

[Benny]

That's not a drug boat - it's one of those new multi-engine testing modules . It is much more efficient to test eight engines at once.

To do the test effectively, a course from Miami to Mexico and back is laid out and the boat must proceed at top speed and only at night. To gain the best indication of how the engines will perform under load, as much 'ballast' as possible is loaded in Mexico for the return trip. This ballast is then off loaded as quickly as possible in waters close to Miami onto the official test monitoring vessel standing by. This is usually a local nondescript boat that no one would notice - they don't want to draw attention to the testing so competitors won't spy on them or want tpo form a 'joint venture'.

So you see it's totally legit - really - you swabs have such vivid imaginations!