Yachting Magazine December 1966

Aerial photo of the model basin shows the half-mile building which houses three towing tanks, including the one used for testing "Antiope." The adjacent buildings house wind tunnels, water tunnels for propeller testing, the Water Channel used for underwater flow photos, and huge wave tank.

In the early part of 1965, the Navy determined that they needed new types of coastal intercept craft to patrol the vast reaches of the Mekong Delta area where the Viet Cong were bringing supplies ashore to supply their troops. Not having the most suitable craft in their inventory to do this job, the Navy announced they would borrow a number of the U.S. Coast Guard's 82-footers. A group of these craft were properly modified, armed, and shipped over. Willis Slane followed these proceedings in the newspapers with interest. He was concerned about the war and its escalation. Having flown the Hump in China during the Second World War he had a better than average appreciation for the nature of the conflict and its difficulties. He put two and two together-and wondered whether perhaps certain of his basic stock fiberglass hulls might be immediately useful for patrol craft conversion. As was typical with him, action soon followed his thoughts. He gained an audience with the Navy fleet operation group concerned with this phase of the Viet Nam war.

His timing was most opportune as they were indeed seeking new design concepts that could be made available quickly. Willis came to the meeting prepared to show what could be done with his 50' cruiser hull converted to a fast gun boat. But, "no," the officers said that they had an aluminum hull model worked out and in procurement to satisfy this size requirement. What they seemed to need was a small, maneuverable craft that could quietly cruise the very shallow delta area and be fast enough to overtake the Viet Cong sampans, which skimmed ashore with supplies every night. Slane considered these requirements for a minute and then said, "I have just put into production a very fast, broad-beamed hull 28' long that might do the job. If we could drive her with the new water jet pumps, it would be possible to eliminate all vulnerable underwater parts such as struts, shaft, propeller and rudder and allow high speed operation in only a few inches of water."