Have boat, will sell

Andrew Edwards

Today, the gray craft sits on a Costa Mesa blacktop. Soon, designer

Dan West hopes his boat is speeding after criminals or hauling a

military special forces crew on its way to a mission.

West, president of American Marine Oil Systems in Costa Mesa, said

his prototype port security boat will be ready for waterborne tests

in about a week.

A chief petty officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, assigned to a

special-warfare unit, West set out to incorporate what he has learned

in the military in an effort to design a security craft that combines

his favorite aspects of boats he has used.

“I used my life experiences and put them all together and came up

with this,” he said.

“This” is still a work in progress. Tools and boxes of parts were

strewn about the unfinished cabin of the prototype Thursday. West’s

project already boasted a 28-foot aluminum catamaran hull and twin

Mercury Verados four-stroke outboard engines.

Each engine can generate 200 to 250 horsepower, and West said the

boat should be able to reach speeds of more than 40 knots.

West’s time in the Navy gave him the idea to design the boat with

a large deck area behind the cabin.

He said he wanted to have enough space for about 12 people and

room for specialized equipment, like gun mounts for a military boat

or a fire pump for a harbor patrol craft.

Large bumpers would allow a security boat captain to push or ram

another vessel, and large gaps between handrails on either side of

the craft were designed to make it easier for security personnel to

rush another boat.

More than $300,000 has been spent designing the boat, West said,

and he hopes to be able to sell models for less than $150,000.

So far, American Marine Oil Systems does not have any contracts to

produce the craft for the military or any police departments.

The security boat’s shallow draft and a design intended to

maximize speed and versatility impressed Jay Carson, a reserve deputy

with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol and

columnist for “The Log,” a boating newspaper.

“It can get into the Back Bay. You could ground the boat and pull

out,” Carson said.

Potential uses for the boat, West said, include port security

patrols, interdiction operations and search-and-rescue responses.

“I just wanted to make a boat that’s fun to make for me, useful

for other departments and agencies, and I want to sell a lot of

them,” West said.