ABOARD THE X-CRAFT – The radio call from a nearby tugboat just about said it all: “What are you?”
On the bridge of the Navy’s new X-Craft, an experimental high-speed catamaran called the Sea Fighter, the crew laughed. A sailor picked up a handset and radioed back, “The fastest boat in Puget Sound.”
Michael V. Martina / The Herald
A few moments of silence passed as the X-Craft left the tug in its wake.
The radio crackled again: “How fast?”
It does 70 knots, or 80 miles an hour.
The X-Craft has been a familiar sight at the Port of Everett since it arrived shortly after its christening on Whidbey Island in February.
And when the builders of the aluminum catamaran took it out for a test run on Puget Sound Friday, the 10th sea trial for the vessel, ferry riders and fishermen got another glimpse of the speedy ship.
That’s not the only place the X-Craft has been turning heads. The sailors on board the ship have been impressed with how quick the double-hulled ship can cut through the water.
“It’s like being on an airplane,” Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Allen Chesney said. “It’s a smooth ride, you don’t have a lot of swaying back and forth. You don’t have a lot of bumps.”
Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Wayne Gangstad agreed.
“If you’re up here on the bridge, it seems like you’re floating on air – on a magic carpet ride, pretty much,” he said.
The 262-foot-long ship has a crew of 16 Navy and 10 Coast Guard personnel.
The Navy is using the X-Craft to test technologies that will help it operate combat ships in shallow waters. With a ramp at its rear, the Sea Fighter will be able to drop off and pick up small boats filled with commandos, or drop its ramp on the shore so military vehicles can drive on.
It has a flight deck big enough for two H-60 Seahawk helicopters and a cargo bay that can hold a dozen 20-foot-long containers. Those containers will be “plug and play” modules filled with gear for different missions, from amphibious assaults to humanitarian relief efforts.
“Everybody who looks at this finds more missions that this thing can do,” said Matt Nichols, president of Nichols Brothers Boat Builders of Freeland, which built the ship.
The Coast Guard, for example, is interested in the vessel because it can be used to fight drug trafficking, he said.
“These guys with their cigarette boats, they think they’re fast at 60 (knots),” Nichols said. “Well, this does 70.”
With the Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and Army looking at the X-Craft, there’s been talk of a fleet of 60 Sea Fighters.
So far, the ship has exceeded expectations. Standards set for noise, vibration and speed, for instance, have been met.
“We seem to be passing everything with flying colors,” Nichols said.
During Friday’s test run, civilian contractors and the vessel’s builders swarmed through the X-Craft. Clipboards or walkie-talkies in hand, they squirted through huddles of workers in the cargo bay, scrutinizing the ship’s performance as it plied Puget Sound.
On the bridge, when skipper Lt. Cmdr. Brandon Bryan pushed the ship to 50 knots, or about 57 mph, through choppy waters, a contractor whispered his assessment: “Wow.”
The final checkoff of the ship’s systems will come today, and Nichols said he expects to turn the ship over to the Navy on Tuesday.
The X-Craft was about 85 percent finished when it was christened. It’s clear there’s still some work left to do. Instead of pinups in the sailors cabins, there are stacks of boxes filled with parts and piles of tools.
Bubble wrap covers the two eight-man dining tables in the mess deck. The coffee machine is still wrapped in plastic. Nearby in the galley, nothing is on the grill but a walkie-talkie recharger. Shower curtains haven’t been hung in the head, and toilet seats haven’t been installed, either.
A crew of 120 employees from Nichols Brothers has been taking a weekday ferry from Whidbey Island to Everett to wrap up work on the Sea Fighter. Nichols said they will have about a month’s worth of work left to do once the ship is turned over to the Navy.
After the Navy takes possession, the crew will start living aboard. In early July, the X-Craft will sail to its new home port in San Diego.
Although the three-man cabins for the enlisted crew look cozy – just 18 inches between the three-high racks and a 4- by 5-foot space next to the bunks for elbowroom – sailors don’t see the space as cramped.
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dan Cacciatore said his last ship was the USS Zephyr, a 170-foot-long coastal patrol boat that had a crew of 29. There, he had a 12-man sleeping area. And before then, he was on the destroyer USS Paul F. Foster, which had an 80-man berthing area.
Gangstad, one of the Coast Guardsmen on board, said his father was a 23-year Navy veteran.
“He’s excited for me, being on an experimental craft,” Gangstad said. “He’s an old salty dog. The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I want a ride.’”
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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