VESSEL REPORT Patrol Boats A 31’x10’ patrol boat built by Inventech Marine for the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.
Safeguards By Michael Crowley, Correspondent
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he market for Inventech Marine Solutions patrol boats has been pretty steady. That’s especially true in Florida where “we’ve done a lot in the state and it continues to grow,” said Jenson Charnell, president of the Bremerton, Wash., boatyard. Popular Inventech aluminum patrol boats are the 31 and 33 full-cabin models. The enclosed cabins offer protection “so it’s a versatile platform that can go throughout the year,” Charnell said. The bow cockpit is fairly easy to access from the cabin, and when a law enforcement officer needs to go ashore, he can beach the boat and take advantage of a folding bow door that “allows you to climb off the front fairly easily. It’s manual, lifting and lowering, and doesn’t require any pulleys or winches.” Match the full cabin model up with a propulsion option that law enforcement agencies are starting to request from Inventech and you have a very fast patrol boat. That option is power provided by a pair of Mercury Marine V-12 600-hp Verado outboards. “In the next year to year-and-a-half, we’ll see patrol boats completed more and more with Mercury 600hp V-12 outboards, mostly in pairs,” said Charnell. A step up in power is a 41' full-cabin model scheduled to be
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built this coming year with triple 600-hp Mercury outboards for a Florida sheriff’s department. Charnell isn’t sure what speed the triple 600-hp Mercury’s will produce. It’s 67 mph with dual 600-hp Mercurys. “That will be an interesting one because it’s a lot more weight and more fuel. I’m now estimating the high 70s if not hitting 80 with triple Mercury outboards.” Adding the third 600-hp Mercury, which comes in at about 1,300 lbs., has required some modifications to the hull. “The biggest thing we’ve done for longevity is increasing plating thickness because it will be a faster boat,” said Charnell. “And with three heavy outboards on the transom, fuel tanks have been moved to compensate for the added weight.” Charnell allows that most of the time the 41-footer won’t operate at full speed, but with triple Mercurys the patrol boat will be capable of cruising at a higher speed, 40 to 45 mph. “What we are trying to design the boat around is cruising in heavy seas at a fairly decent clip.”
SAFE BOATS
In December, Safe Boats International, another Bremerton, Wash., boatbuilder, was working on its 52nd Safe 41 Interceptor for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The first Safe 41 Interceptor for CBP was built in 2016, four years www.workboat.com • JANUARY 2022 • WorkBoat
Inventech Marine Solutions
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The patrol boat market continues to grow.
