History | |
---|---|
Australia | |
Name | HMAS Air Faith |
Operator | Royal Australian Navy |
Ordered | 4 March 1944 |
Builder | South Coast Company, Newport Beach, California |
Commissioned | 8 February 1945 |
Decommissioned | 20 August 1946 |
Fate | Transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force in 1949 |
Status | Returned to Royal Australian Navy in 1965, sold 1968. |
Australia | |
Name | 02-101 |
Operator | Royal Australian Air Force |
Acquired | 1949 |
Fate | Returned to Royal Australian Navy in 1965 |
Australia | |
Name | Air Faith |
Operator | Quayside Charters |
Homeport | Sydney |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Miami-class air-sea rescue boat |
Displacement | 23 long tons (23 t) |
Length | 63 ft (19 m) o/a |
Beam | 15 ft 4 in (4.67 m) |
Draught | 4 ft (1.2 m) |
Propulsion | 2 × 630 hp (470 kW) Hall-Scott Defender V12 petrol engines |
Speed | 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) |
Endurance | 14.5 hours |
Complement | 7 or 8 |
Armament | 2 × twin .50 cal. M2 Browning machine guns |
HMAS Air Faith (909) was a Miami-class 63-foot Air-Sea Rescue Boat that was operated by the Royal Australian Navy during World War II, and later by the Royal Australian Air Force.
The Miami class rescue boats were wooden-hulled, and powered by two 630 hp (470 kW) Hall-Scott Defender petrol engines giving a top speed of 31.5 knots. They were armed with two twin .50 calibre M2 Browning machine guns mounted either side of the bridge. The crew comprised one officer in command, a coxswain, two engineers, two seamen and one or two radio operators. [2]
Air Faith was one of a class of twenty boats ordered on 4 March 1944. [1] They were all Model 314 boats, designed by the Miami Shipbuilding Corporation, of Miami, Florida, but built at a number of shipyards in California. [3] Air Faith was built by South Coast Company in Newport Beach, California, as hull C-26647 [4] and arrived at Sydney aboard the Cecil G. Sellars and was commissioned on 8 February 1945. [1]
Air Faith was placed into reserve on 20 August 1946, and in 1949 she was one of thirteen RAN rescue boats transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force, [1] and renamed 02-101.
The boat was returned to the RAN in 1965, and sold to private interests on 3 July 1968. The boat was sold again in 1972 and has been with the current owner ever since. The boat is moored in Sydney Harbour and has been operating as a charter vessel since 1998. [5] The boat has had major modifications, but the hull is clearly visible as its former air sea rescue style. A superstructure was fitted as a saloon area in the 1980s. The Hall Scott petrol engines were replaced in the 1970s with GM's, and recently with Fiat diesels.
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