June 12, 2008 There’s something about a bespoke piece of high-ticket kit that resonates with congruity of purpose and this Rigid Inflatable Boat is a case in point. Apparently at some time the property of a company which purpose-built boats and marketed them as “uncatchable”, it got caught up in a drug case with large amounts of cocaine allegedly found aboard. Being a lighweight RIB with no less than eight 250 horsepower outboards, it has 2000 horses on tap and a low radar signature, and making it very suitable for long-range, high-speed, high-stealth, medium-payload operations.
It seems there’s a lot of disinformation on the origins of the boat, but we’re tending to lean towards the ever-reliable Snopes' account of things, though we’re open to submissions.
Snopes goes on to write that such boats often have up to 15,000 liters of fuel on board for their high speed coast-guard-avoiding runs. Marketed to drug-runners as “uncatchable”, we reckon the top speeds mentioned are a bit on the conservative side.
One wonders what high tech pursuit craft we need to outfit the water police and customs guys with so they can maintain good order? Helicopters were apparently used to catch this boat, so they seem the most cost-efficient way of achieving the desired result.
