Yachts of Yesteryear

The motor yacht P.T. Joe was at Balboa from 1946 to 1955. P.T. Joe, also

known as boat No. PT 695, was built by the Annapolis Yacht Yard Inc., in

1945.

The boat was built for the Russian Navy under a land/lease agreement. She

arrived, as deck cargo, at Los Angeles Harbor at the time of the Japanese

surrender.

PT 695 was offloaded, and her armament was removed. Judge Joseph

Marchetti acquired the boat through war surplus. She was painted white

and was renamed. Marchetti moored his yacht off the Christian’s Hut

Restaurant on the Balboa Peninsula, between Fernando and Cypress streets.

P.T. Joe became quite an attraction in the Harbor. Her six large exhaust

pipes protruding from the transom gave the impression of power and speed.

It is rumored that it cost $1,000 in fuel to run to Catalina and back.

Thus, we very seldom observed P.T. Joe underway.

About 1955, P.T. Joe left Newport Harbor for Long Beach. In 1979, the

P.T. Boats Inc. Assn. acquired her. She cruised to San Diego on her own

bottom, with a group of enthusiastic World War II ex-PT boat officers on

board.In August of 1991, she was donated to the Sea Scouts of Rio Vista.

These enthusiastic, hard-working young men have restored P.T. Joe to her

original PT 695 condition, but without the armament. Painted Navy gray

and designated PT 695, she operates out of the Rio Vista Sea Scout Base

on the San Francisco Bay.