The UKBF 42m Customs Cutter, formerly HMRC 42m Customs Cutter & UKBA 42m Customs Cutter, is a class of four patrol vessels, derived from the Dutch

Damen Stan Patrol 4207 The Dutch shipbuilding firm The Damen Group, designs and manufactures a range of patrol vessels, of various sizes, including the Damen Stan 4207 Patrol Vessels. The Damen Stan patrol vessel designs' names include a four digit code, where the firs ...

design, operated by the UK

Border Force Border Force (BF) is a British law enforcement command within the Home Office, responsible for frontline border control operations at air, sea and rail ports in the United Kingdom. The force was part of the now defunct UK Border Agency from i ...

Construction

The class were built to the

design in the Damen Shipyards in the Netherlands between 2001 and 2004, and have a steel hull with an aluminium superstructure. Much effort has been expended in making them quiet to reduce crew fatigue; their engines are raft-mounted, decks throughout the ships are of a floating type, and their compartments are constructed on a box-within-a-box principle. A rigid inflatable boat (RIB) can be launched from the stern slipway. They are fitted with a per minute fire fighting system for dealing with fires in other ships.

Name prefix

The Inland Revenue and

HM Customs and Excise HM Customs and Excise (properly known as Her Majesty's Customs and Excise at the time of its dissolution) was a department of the British Government formed in 1909 by the merger of HM Customs and HM Excise; its primary responsibility was the ...

Departments merged to form

HM Revenue and Customs His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (commonly HM Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, and formerly Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) is a department of the UK government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of stat ...

on 18 April 2005, and from this time customs cutters changed their prefix from "HMRC" (Her Majesty's Revenue Cutter) to "HMCC" (Her Majesty's Customs Cutter). Following transfer to the UK Border Agency this was shortened to the current ''HMC'' (Her Majesty's Cutter) and a new livery applied to the fleet of cutters.

Propulsion

The class is fitted with twin Caterpillar 3516B DI-TA Elec engines driving twin 4-bladed controllable-pitch propellers through a pair of 3.5:1 reduction gearboxes. The total installed power of gives them a top speed of . A single Promac bow thruster is fitted for slow speed manoeuvring in confined spaces. Electrical power is supplied by a pair of 106 kVA generators.

Armament

Customs cutters are not normally armed with fixed

firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

s, nor are crews normally armed. What is often taken to be a

gun A gun is a device that Propulsion, propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or water cannon, cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). So ...

on the bow of UKBA cutters is in fact a

fire monitor A deluge gun, fire monitor, master stream or deck gun is an aimable controllable high-capacity water jet used for manual firefighting or automatic fire protection systems. Deluge guns are often designed to accommodate foam which has been inject ...

. When necessary, the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, whose ships are armed, can be asked for assistance.

Ships

Operations

Customs cutters often intercept vessels suspected of

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

of illegal

narcotic drug The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates a ...

s. ''Vigilant'' seized an estimated 300 kg of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

off the south coast of the Isle of Wight in

gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between .

-force conditions during 2010. Officers from the UK Border Agency, the

Serious Organised Crime Agency The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) was a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom which existed from 1 April 2006 until 7 October 2013. SOCA was a national law enforcement agency with Home Office sponsorship, e ...

and

Hampshire Police The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in South East England.Hampshire Constabulary, 2012 Retrieved 27 April 2012 The force area in ...

discovered the drugs in 11 rucksacks attached to a buoy off Tennyson Point, close to where a fishing vessel had been spotted acting suspiciously over the bank holiday weekend. Three people were arrested on the fishing vessel ''Galwad-Y-Mor'' (SU116) in Yarmouth, and were charged with conspiracy to import cocaine into the UK. ''Searcher'' seized

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

said to be worth £12 million off the Sussex coast in July 2011. ''Searcher''s fast patrol intercepted and boarded a Dutch yacht, which was escorted into Newhaven Harbour, and four men were

arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be question ...

ed,

tried In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, wh ...

convicted In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by jud ...

, and

sentenced Sentenced was a Finnish gothic metal band that played melodic death metal in their early years. The band formed in 1989 in the town of Muhos and broke up in 2005. Lead guitarist Miika Tenkula was the band's vocalist for the first album, but du ...

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

. One cutter was deployed to the Aegean Sea in 2016 in support of the migrant crisis. Interceptions and boarding by all customs cutters—no more detailed information is available—increased steadily from 514 in 1999–2000 to 1,981 in 2008–09 On 27 October 2021 it was announced in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review that £74 million of capital funding had been allocated to replace the five cutters plus six coastal patrol vessels.

References

External links

Mid-Shore Patrol Vessel
– Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessel {{UK Border Force Ships built in Vlissingen Customs cutters of the United Kingdom Patrol boat classes