The Namacurra-class patrol boats are a series of small harbour

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...

s currently in service with

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Background and description

The Namacurra class (also spelled "Namicurra") is a series of small harbour patrol craft designed and built in South Africa. Their

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

-type hulls are made of

glass-reinforced plastic Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

. They have a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of light and fully loaded and measure with a beam of and a draught of . The boats are powered by two

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

or Yamaha gasoline engines turning two

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

s giving the vessels a maximum speed of With a crew of four they have a maximum range of at . The patrol boats mount a

Furuno (commonly known as Furuno) is a Japanese electronics company whose main products are marine electronics, including marine radar systems, fish finders, and navigational instruments. The company also manufactures global positioning systems an ...

surface search

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

operating on the I band. They are armed with a machine gun or two light machine guns. When fitted the 12.7 mm gun is placed atop the

pilothouse A bridge (also known as a command deck), or wheelhouse (also known as a pilothouse), is a room or platform of a ship, submarine, airship, or spacecraft, spaceship from which the ship can be commanded. When a ship is under way, the bridge is manne ...

facing forward and the 7.62 mm guns are mounted facing aft. Their small size allows the vessels to be transported by trailers and transported by road.

Construction and career

33 patrol boats were built in South Africa between 1980 and 1981 for service with the

South African Navy The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force. The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prote ...

. They were initially numbered beginning with ''Y 1500'', but they were later renamed in South African service beginning keeping only the final two digits of their initial names, beginning with ''Y 02''. These boats are in use with the harbour patrol forces in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

and

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...

. ''Y 1506'' was lost at sea off Port Elizabeth. Several boats were transferred to other nations. Five were refitted for advanced riverine operations as part of Project Xena. Three were operated on

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

Export

''Y 1520'' transferred to Malawi in October 1988. The vessel was renamed ''Kaning'a''. ''Kaning'a'' was refitted in 2007. A second boat was transferred in October 2008. Two, ''Y 1501'' and ''Y 1510'' were transferred to Namibia on 29 October 2002. They were renamed ''Y 01'' and ''Y 10'' respectively. ''Y 1507'' and ''Y 1530'' were donated to Mozambique on 14 September 2004 They too were renamed to ''Y 07'' and ''Y 30''. In 2006, a further two were donated to Angola.

Citations

References

* * * {{South African Navy Ships of the South African Navy Ships of the Namibian Navy Patrol boat classes