Crash Boat ‘Intrepid’ Comes Home to the Bay

While Latitude 38 is a sailing-focused magazine, we believe that maritime history in general is an interesting topic for most sailors. So when we received this story from the World War2 Crash Boat Society about the 1944 vessel Intrepid, we felt it was worth sharing with our sail-centric audience. 

The San Francisco Bay Area has many historic and treasured vessels of the World War II era: the Liberty and Victory ships Jeremiah O’Brien and Red Oak Victory, the former Coast Guard cutter and presidential yacht Potomac, and the submarine Pampanito. Add to that list a new historic vessel for the public to enjoy — the former WW II armed search and rescue vessel Intrepid.

The Intrepid will provide public access in multiple ways — an annual fall-semester active-learning education tour for K-12 students where the field trip comes to the students; a traveling maritime museum  visiting marinas throughout the Bay Area and Delta; a summer Delta youth camp; a maritime training program; a veterans’ program; a daysail program for groups and friends; and a VIP annual daysail on significant World War II commemorative events including Pearl Harbor Day, the Doolittle Raid, Midway, D-Day, VE-Day and VJ-Day.

Intrepid is an 85-ft-long armed search and rescue boat designed to retrieve downed air crews and pilots during World War II and the Korean War. Built in 1944, the Intrepid was designated as an ASR 85 (Air Sea Rescue). Since the vessel rescued crew members from airplanes that had to crash —or ditch — into the sea, the boats were also dubbed “crash boats” to distinguish themselves from their close cousins, the PT boats (Patrol Torpedo boat).

Crash boats were 104, 85, 63 and 50 feet in length, depending on their area of operations. They were developed during the Battle of Britain, when US observers decided to replicate the British military system of specialized vessels designed to save fliers during those desperate days.

Intrepid is not new to San Francisco Bay. Her history from 1944 to 1970 is currently being researched. In 1970 the Palo Alto-based Sea Scout unit Intrepid first acquired the vessel, which was then located at the Alameda Naval Air Station.

The Navy towed her on a barge to Mare Island — they had stripped her entire interior except her forward crew quarters. At Mare Island the Sea Scouts replaced the Intrepid‘s hull and installed four 671 engines. in 1974 she was towed to the Palo Alto Harbor, where her restoration work continued until 1980. Having acquired another training vessel, the Sea Scout unit transferred the ASR 85 to the Berkeley Sea Scout unit Farallon.

Farallon continued the restoration work for another 10 years, and in 1990 Intrepid became an active training vessel and spent the next 20 years on San Francisco Bay and the Delta. Alas, unable to pay for emergency repairs at a haulout yard, the vessel was repossessed by the yard (not something the previous World War II generation would have ever done) and sold to a private party in 2011.

While en route to Seattle, Intrepid made an emergency landing at Eureka, where her new owners made the decision to resell the vessel. In 2012 Intrepid was sold to another private owner and renamed All American. The ASR 85 was delivered back to the Delta, where she operated as a private motor vessel until 2018. She was then donated to the coed Sea Scout unit Albatross in Martinez. A year later the Albatross unit acquired a new training vessel and listed Intrepid for sale.

The Sea Scout Intrepid Alumni Association, led by principal buyer Miguel Pena, purchased Intrepid in April 2020. She has in effect made a full circle. Returning to crew members once teenagers, now in their 50s and 60s, Intrepid has come home to her all-volunteer crew, who are committed to sharing this historic treasure with multiple audiences and again operating her as a training vessel.

The Bay Area and Delta communities will soon have another great reason to live in this part of the nation — a chance to step back in time on a WW II armed search and rescue vessel, designed for one purpose: freedom.

Intrepid is currently berthed at the Stockton Downtown Marina. Her skipper, Kevin L. Murray, and crew members are using this time to ready the vessel for summer 2021 and beyond. Limited service for small groups (with masks and appropriate social distancing) can be arranged.

Interested new members, donors (we accept boats, cars, campers, and maritime equipment) and volunteers are encouraged to contact the nonprofit World War 2 Crash Boat Society via their website at crashboatsociety.homesteadcloud.com or [email protected]. All donations are tax deductible.