CBP takes delivery of first of 52 Coastal Interceptor Vessels
Last year Safe Boats International announced the award of a contract for a fleet of 52 boats to replace the agency’s aging 42-foot Invincible-class Miami Vice style cigarette boat style interceptors.
SBI’s 41 Center Console-Offshore craft design, which uses a 41 ft (12.5 m) deep-V aluminum monohull and was already in use with the Colombian Navy and Royal Bahamas Police Force, uses four outboards to hit 54+ knots in open ocean (though not likely that fast in anything but the calmest of sea states). These craft will carry a up-to four armed AMO agents in shock-absorbing seats and are capable, like slightly smaller USCG 45-footers, of 12~ hour patrols.
Now, CBP announced they have taken possession of the first of these $923,000-a-pop coastal gunboats, which will be named the Alexandria, after of one of the first maritime law enforcement “collectorships” used by the Department of Treasury in 1789.