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A decade-long effort to put a WWII boat back to water
- coldcode 10y agoDespite being a programmer, I love reading military history books and visiting museums. Time to plan a visit to New Orleans. Riding in a real PT boat would be a blast. Much more likely than my dream of driving Tiger 131 (the one in Bovington used in movie Fury).
- andyv133 10y agoMake sure to give yourself plenty of time to go through the WWII Museum there. It is huge and extremely well put together, with tons of artifacts (including entire airplanes) and some of the best exhibit design I've ever seen.
- ericcumbee 10y agoIf you do be sure to make a side trip from NO to Mobile,al and see the USS Alabama.
- rdtsc 10y agoI recommend Airforce museum in Dayton, OH if you haven't been. It is a huge place so at least a 2-3 day affair.
- walrus01 10y agoThis reminds me a great deal of a nautical version of the people who are maintaining "flying museum" operable B-17, B-24 and other WW2 vintage bomber aircraft.
- Animats 10y ago130,000 volunteer hours and $6 million to restore a PT boat? Someone had one for sale for $750,000 on eBay in 2004, and they weren't getting any bids. The going price for an 80 foot yacht is about $1-2 million.
- gozur88 10y agoThe condition matters, though. PT boats were not designed to last.
- Arizhel 10y agoWhat I find interesting about these restoration efforts is that it took far less time to just build the thing from scratch, many decades ago (when technology was not as advanced).