Want To Be a Part of PT-305 Restoration?

[parallel]

The actual restoration work is all but done... but there is something else we can do to help make this a reality. The National WWII Museum needs to raise some funds to put her back in the water. Now is your chance to be a part of the only fully restored WWII Torpedo Patrol Boat. If you are able to, please go to the link below and back this project. Thanks.

https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...museum/launch-pt-305

 

[Red Flag 1]

The actual restoration work is all but done... but there is something else we can do to help make this a reality. The National WWII Museum needs to raise some funds to put her back in the water. Now is your chance to be a part of the only fully restored WWII Torpedo Patrol Boat. If you are able to, please go to the link below and back this project. Thanks.

https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...museum/launch-pt-305

Looks like she earned a couple of German successes.

 

[SpitfireV]

If I had the money I would gladly donate to it. Couple of things surprised me: I didn't realise they were wood hulled (assumed steel) and I really didn't realise this was the only one left- I'd have thought there would be a very more seaworthy examples about.

 

[parallel]

Today, just four of these combat-veteran PT boats still exist in the United States. PT-305 is the only one that is fully restored.

This picture will give you an idea of just how "complete" this restoration has been.

 

[medicchick]

Damn I wish I had spare money. They were bad ass boats. This was my Grandpa's.

 

[Red Flag 1]

This picture will give you an idea of just how "complete" this restoration has been.

I wonder if they had to replace the entire keel? I'm thinking that they probably did. The Packard V-12 engines, three of them IIRC, really pushed the boat through the seas. I think there is one still a float on the west coast: Oregon is home of world's only World War II-era PT boat | Offbeat Oregon History | #ORhistory. Several years ago, I was chatting with gent from Charlottesville, Va., who claimed he owned one and kept it in the Va. Beach area. So far I have not been able to confirm that.

 

[parallel]

Our call for support seems to be working. About 75% of the goal has been reached.

 

[parallel]

I went in to make my pledge after Mrs. Parallel shot down my hopes of doing the "LT" ($1,000) or the "CDR" ($2,500). After my pledge this is what the total is now.

Thanks y'all. I'm confident that some of these pledges came from this forum. If you were leaning towards pledging by all means still do so. This is going to be an expensive operation to maintain and we're hoping to be able to honor other WWII Veterans as well.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

@parallel , ya made the Wall Street Journal!

A Rare PT Boat Comes Back to Life

I know not everyone has a subscription To WSJ so I'll post a PDF of the article in a bit.

New Orleans graduate student Kali Martinnever imagined that she would be driving rivets into the hull of a World War II patrol-torpedo boat, just as workers did at the city’s Higgins Industries boatyard seven decades ago. The 31-year-old and hundreds of other volunteers have helped the city’s National WWII Museum make PT-305 into the only boat of its kind that saw combat and has been fully restored to operating condition.

Why do so few of the fast attack boats remain? They saw action in nearly every major theater of World War II and are perhaps best remembered for the Pacific exploits of John F. Kennedy when he was a young naval officer. Later decorated for heroism, JFK said: “It was involuntary. They sank my boat.”

Some 400 PT boats survived the war. The Navy scrapped most of them where they had ended up, said Tom Czekanski, 56, a senior curator at the museum who has managed the PT-305 restoration. “There are only about 10 PT boats left.”

 

[parallel]

Cool! Thanks for posting it.