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Welcome to PTF 3
Restoration Project |
Boy Scout Troop 544, in an effort to keep older
scouts interested in scouting after reaching the age
of
'perfume and gasoline, the adult leadership began
searching for a boat to serve as a High Adventure
vessel that would support long trips and scuba
diving. Fifty to eighty foot long liner shrimp
boats, and trawlers were considered till a patrol
boat in Ft. Lauderdale showed up in the for sale
listings. Then committee member, Bob McCray
contacted the owner, Bill Norton of General
Propulsion who after many discussions donated the
Patrol Torpedo Fast boat in December 2001.
After a flurry of E-Mails, whopping phone bills and
several trips to south Florida the boat was
identified as PTF 3, a principle Veteran of the
Tonkin Gulf Incident with 9 years in VietNam and had
served later in missions against Cuba and Nicaragua.
Funds were raised and the PTF 3
Boat was pushed by a Tug Boat 250 miles up the
inter-coastal waterway in May 2003 to the Boston
Whaler Mfg. Plant in Edgewater, Fl. Two weeks later
the boat was hauled from the water
with two heavy cranes and placed a house moving rig.
After drying out for eight weeks, the
80ft. long, 25ft. wide, 13ft high, 60 ton hull
followed by the bridge was escorted by six Volusia
County Deputies and an honor guard of Veterans in
the middle of the night of 29 July 2003. After
covering a distance of 43 miles in three and half
hours, PTF 3 was parked in DeLand, Fl. ready
for restoration.
PTF 3, named 'Fast and Nasty' by her original crew,
will serve as a living history museum,
permanently docked in Sanford, Fl. Crewed by Boy
Scouts of America Sea Scouts and
Navy League Sea Cadets, boys and girls will
experience challenges and adventures that most
people only dream about. Restored to modern codes
and standards, and retaining her wartime
appearance, PTF 3 will go to sea, cruising to other
historic seaport naval museums.
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PTF 3 Restoration Project
P.O. Box 740789, Orange City, FL 32774-0799
TEL: (800) 694-7161
redbarn2@embarq.net |
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Sea Scouts restore the boat
that started the Vietnam War . . .
Florida
museum locks out scouts, Vietnam vets;
Participation in Veterans Day parade
unlikely . . .
Please join us - with your help,
our collective voice will grow louder and stronger
and all the more impossible for the
DNAS to ignore
Admiral LeRoy Collins, Executive
Director of the Florida Department of Veterans'
Affairs visits PTF 3
July 2007
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