On Jul 10, 4:04*am, wrote:
On Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:06:38 -0300, Howard Eisenhauer

wrote:
The RCMP used to have 50' coastal patrol boats with twin Merlins,
those puppies wouls MOVE. *They had even faster speedboats that fit
into the back of the patrol boats, they'd kick'em loose at full speed.
Must have been a Fun Ride .

H.

TWIN Merlins!!!??? Now we're talking about my dream boat.
Dave

When I was in the Royal Air Force 1959-64, I was on Gan in the
Maldives. There were two AVRO Shackletons Mk 1 on permanent Search &
Rescue duty. I was there to fix the airborne radar. Also we had a
couple of Target Towing Launches (TTLs), they had two marinised
Griffon engines. These Griffons were used in the Shackleton and were
quite a bit bigger than the Merlin. The Shackletons had contra
rotating props to absorb the extra horsepower. I had the enviable job
of looking after the Sarah Beacons that alll the aircrew carried and
and the receivers that were in the TTLs and the Shacks. We used to
abandon a little Sarah beacon in a dingy, shoot off 50 miles or so, in
any direction and then come back and find it. Sometimes the Indian
Ocean was like a millpond and boy - did these boats go! We never lost
one Sarah beacon. They were started by explosive cartridges and when
these two huge engines were put to work, the fairly light TTL would
really fly! They were made of wood - so as to be non magnetic, and
about 50 ft. and I dearly, dearly wanted one. There were quite a few
based around and Lossiemouth in Scotland springs to mind. Being wood
they did not last long, especially in the tropics, but what craft
these were. 4000 gallons of aviation fuel would be a bit hard to
handle nowadays, but it wasn't a problem then.

Regards George.