Friday, December 30, 2005

Grant could put Vietnam-era PTF3 boat ‘in the water’

By MORRIS SULLIVAN | News-Journal Correspondent

DELAND — There´s not exactly a light at the end of the tunnel for those working to restore the historic PTF 3 boat, but after more than two years, there is a glimmer of hope for new energy.

The boat that sits outside the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum at the DeLand Airport has been slowly undergoing restoration at the hands of Boy Scouts and volunteers. But they recently learned that the project is in line for help from the state. The boat has been recommended for a $350,000 grant from the Florida Division of Historic Resources Bureau of Historic Preservation.

Out of 100 eligible projects considered for special projects grants, only 43 were recommended for funding, said Alissa Slade, Bureau of Historic Preservation grants specialist. The PT Boat restoration ranked 39th, so it made the cut by a fairly narrow margin.

It´s unusual, but not unheard of, for boats to get special project grants. “We have had a couple of boat projects prior to this,” as well as some train restorations, Slade said. Since such “moving objects” aren´t fixed Florida structures, they must have a proven connection to Florida history. “They have done that,” Slade said.

The PTF 3 was one of 20 Norwegian-built PT-boats acquired by the Kennedy administration. It arrived in Da Nang, South Vietnam, in 1963, just in time to be engaged in the Tonkin Gulf incident.

The Florida connection came after the Vietnam era. After the war, it was used to train divers at the Navy technical dive school in Key West -- and perhaps used to spy on Cuba during the Cold War era -- before being retired in 1977.

The boat was donated to Orange City Scout Troop 544 in 2001. In 2003, it was pushed 250 miles up the coast of Florida before being trucked by a house-moving company to DeLand to be restored. The Scouts and a crew of volunteers have been working on the restoration ever since.

Scoutmaster Robert McCray, who is spearheading the PTF 3 Restoration Project, said the $350,000 “would put the boat in the water.”

The crew of volunteers and Boy Scouts work on the boat every Wednesday and Saturday. They only missed work days during hurricanes.

“Otherwise, we´re moving right along,” McCray said.

They´ve stripped and rebuilt hatches, gutted the interior and stripped it down to the structure, dismantled the nose, and are having a new stem and bullnose built from oak and mahogany, and have removed and refinished hardware.

“Brass fittings were removed, taken down to the original metal and buffed back up,” he said. “We´ve been able to recondition a lot of pieces like brand new, but a lot of pieces will have to be replaced or copied.”

The bridge was removed and rebuilt from fiberglass and marine plywood. That work is complete except for painting and finishing, which is being done at a Volusia County boat factory.

“We left a 30-caliber bullet hole in it,” McCray said. “But the shrapnel hits we had to repair.”

If all goes well, McCray hopes to see the work complete in about two and a half years.

But, Slade said, it´s too soon to tell if the money will actually get into the hands of McCray and company. “We used to be pretty positive things would get funded, but back in 2003 only nine got funded,” she said. “So I try not to be too positive with people.”

They won´t know for sure if the grant will be funded until the budget is passed for the 2006-07 budget year, which Slade said is usually late May or early June. If the entire list isn´t funded, the future of the grant “is up to the Legislature,” she said.

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