NGPZ - another boat

[Marilyn Mason]

In 2000 Marilyn and I went on the cruise from Vancouver BC to Alaska for our
25th wedding anniversary.  I recall looking at the boats in Vancouver
harbour (1st time I'd been back since 1975).
I wound up staring at a  yaught beside the cruise ship.  It a little over
100 feet long and I kept thinking I'd seen it before.  As we were pulling
away from the dock I realized it started out life as a Fairmile.  This was
Canada's answer to the  British MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat), USA - PT Boat and
the German E Boat.   They were mostly built in the shipyards on the Great
Lakes and their length kept to 120" to make it though the lock system and up
the St Lawrence River (the St Lawence Seaway was still 20 years away).  With
its bullet like shape, 3 Roll Royce Merlins pushing 6000 hp and 2.5 tons of
high test gas (plus armaments) this floating bomb could put out a "Fair
mile" at full boil of  56 knots ( a little better than 60 mph or 100 kph) .
The one I was looking at was probably built in Vancouver or some other west
coast port and did submarine patrol duty from Vancouver to Hyder Alaska.
We had one of these in my home town and it had been converted into a day
cruise boat.  It ran charters up into the 30,000 island region on the east
side of Georgian Bay.

Jim