“Texas Navy” Hydrofoil Assisted Catamaran Patrol Boat

MarineLog reports a contract for an interesting new patrol boat for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

“JANUARY 28, 2019 — All American Marine, Inc. (AAM), Bellingham Bay, WA, has won a contract from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TWPD) for construction of an 80’ x 27’ Teknicraft design aluminum catamaran for operation in Texas State waters and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

This long-range hydrofoil-assisted catamaran will be … designed as a patrol vessel for an “Offshore on an Oceans” route.”

“…TPWD and Texas Game Wardens also patrol an additional 200 nautical miles into the U.S. exclusive economic zones through a joint enforcement agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.”

A good look at this might inform our selection of future replacements for the 87 foot WPBs.

11 thoughts on ““Texas Navy” Hydrofoil Assisted Catamaran Patrol Boat”

They take fishing without a license SERIOUSLY in Texas!

Reply ↓

Wait, since when does Texas needs a patrol boat? Isn’t that mission creeping into the USCG

Reply ↓

leesea on January 29, 2019 at 11:50 am said:

The Texas Rangers have some very serious river patrol boats. And I would assume the Gamewardens catch poachers offshore. USCG doesn’t do inland or near-shore fisheries protection

Reply ↓
- Nicky on January 29, 2019 at 3:40 pm said:
  
  Then it makes you wonder, is Texas creeping into Federal territory and federal roles. Sooner or later drug cartels are gona target them and when one gets hit by them, it’s not gona end well for Texas Rangers and Texas game wardens. which is why I believe they are mission creeping to federal work and that’s gona cause a HUGE issue down the road.
Bill Smith on January 31, 2019 at 7:07 pm said:

“operating up to 200 miles out,” sure sounds like anywhere in the EEZ to me. I don’t really think there’s a big conflict as much as there may be wasted effort due to lack of coordination. Then again, Texas probably only cares about revenue for Texas and doesn’t care as much about the big picture…

Reply ↓
- Nicky on January 31, 2019 at 7:55 pm said:
  
  Imaging them trying to enforce a law on the EEZ and the Mexican Navy shows up. It’s gona be an International incident in the making.

I believe that California has a few similar vessels by built by Kwijack in Seattle.

Reply ↓

DaSaint on January 28, 2019 at 9:16 pm said:

All American Marine has built lots of these Teknicraft-based designs for Fisheries, ACE, and NOAA. The concept is that with the hydrofoil allowing more of the hull to be lifted slightly out of the water, there is less resistance and hence greater speed for the installed power.

From some that I’ve spoken to, users have mixed feelings, as they’re best only in calm or inland waterways.

Reply ↓

These comments from an email conversations by a man with substantial expertise in this area.

Yes..yet another cat with Dr. Hoppe’s foil-assist configuration. I see lots of superstructure and “stuff” above the waterline; I hope they’ve got their sums right; Dr. Hoppe’s foil configuration is very load sensitive and we’ve seen a number of examples where the vessel was too heavy to take advantage of the drag reductions the foils offer when “properly” loaded.
Teknicraft has certainly gotten a number of them right in the past, but so many times in the world of weight-sensitive advanced marine vehicles we see the yard and end-user “collude” to load more and more on to the platform, eventually exceeding what the technology will support. We’ve observed ACV, SES and hydrofoil craft “fail” due to that factor over the years. Hopefully the expectations are realistic and the weight management is rigorous.

Reply ↓