Refitting Coast Guard Motor Lifeboats to Continue Saving Lives
Crews from US Coast Guard Station Barnegat Light train in surf aboard newly refit 47-foot Motor Lifeboats.
Scott Nevins
While Coast Guard air crews often grab headlines, sometimes flying hundreds of miles offshore into unimaginable conditions to save mariners in peril, boaters in trouble closer to the coast are more likely to have a Coast Guard vessel come alongside. That’s true even in extremely gnarly conditions. Crews aboard the 47-foot Motor Lifeboat, the Coast Guard’s primary nearshore fast-response rescue platform, will head into 50-knot winds through 30-foot seas and traverse inlets with 20-foot breaking surf.
These venerable boats first went into service in the late 1990s, replacing the 44 MLB. As they exceed their anticipated service life, the Coast Guard has turned to Birdon, a global maritime and defense contractor, to complete a fleetwide $191 million Service Life Extension Program. Boating went behind the scenes to see firsthand how these revitalized vessels give their Coast Guard crews improved tools for saving lives.
In Birdon’s new building on the Connecticut River, workers refit about eight boats at once, and each boat takes around eight months to complete.
Capt. Vincent Daniello
Rescue Machines
“When you’re inbound with a boat in tow, against an ebb current, in 24-foot seas, it shows that these boats are highly capable of their mission,” says Chief Petty Officer Matthew Whitlow, who has served aboard a 47 Motor Lifeboat since 2014. That includes four years in the notorious Columbia River entrance as an instructor at National Motor Lifeboat School at Cape Disappointment, Washington. “I’ve never doubted that this boat would take care of us.”
What gives him that confidence? The 47 MLB is designed to capsize on its side or pitchpole end-over-end, even rolling all the way through 360 degrees, then return upright within 12 seconds and continue on its mission. I’ve quipped, in particularly rough seas, about being in Mother Ocean’s washing machine, but these men and women are ready, able and fully equipped for spin cycle.
Once on-scene, Coast Guard crews deploy dewatering pumps, damage control kits and firefighting capabilities. Often, just towing a disabled boat stabilizes or remedies perilous situations. The 47 MLB can stay offshore for many hours, follow stricken vessels back to port, and carry as many as 34 survivors and crew—all far surpassing rescue-helicopter limits.
Birdon’s warehouse stores 4,000 items, where they’re ready for the next boat, including new, taller stainless-steel propeller struts, Aquamet 22 shafts, and self-closing emergency fuel-shutoff valves.
Capt. Vincent Daniello
Project Scope
At Birdon’s Portland, Connecticut, facility, six indoor service bays accommodate technicians installing new diesels, upgrading electronics, reconfiguring the open bridge and engine room, and welding in entire sections of aluminum. In other buildings, additional boats are disassembled and media-blasted inside and out to bare aluminum. Since the project began in 2019, the company has completed 27 boats. Two facilities, in Connecticut and also Bellingham, Washington, will refit about 20 boats in 2025, and Birdon is on track and within budget toward a final fleet of 107 refit 47 MLBs by 2029. (Another 10 boats in the Coast Guard’s current 117-boat fleet may be scrapped or refit in the end.)
What those metrics don’t reflect, though, is Birdon’s focus on the mission of these boats—protecting Coast Guard crews while rescuing boaters already in serious peril. That starts with ensuring rollover survivability even when two new Cummins diesel engines offer 880 pounds less ballast than the Detroit Diesels they replace. Steel ballast low in the engine room and forward compartment compensates for that change, and completed boats are weighed, both upright and inclined through 14 degrees in a hydraulic cradle, to verify their stability. Each of the 4,000 parts replaced, as well as the few dozen retained items, are all inspected at least three times: before, during and after installation. Sea trials by both Birdon and the Coast Guard replicate operating parameters right down to crew weight simulated with water tanks belted into the seats.
New Cummins diesels are 20 percent lighter and make 20 percent more horsepower than the Detroit Diesels they replace.
Capt. Vincent Daniello
Engines and Performance
While Cummins’ 530 hp QSC 8.3-liter diesels are 20 percent lighter and make 20 percent more horsepower than the original 435 hp Detroit Diesel 6V92 engines, the added weight of sound-mitigating and climate-stabilizing insulation, a reconfigured bridge, and the ballast needed for this boat’s unique seaworthiness net only about 2 knots faster speed overall. Fuel burned at the end of a typical day is about the same with the new engines as with the old motors.
Those Detroit Diesels are older than many of the Coast Guard engineers working on them, and it shows. “When we go out and the boat isn’t making full power [with Detroit Diesels], we have to check fuel pressure, look for air restrictions, check the valve clearances, maybe replace fuel injectors, or remove and clean the aftercooler,” says Chief Petty Officer Lantz Fortner, who has been an engineer aboard 47 MLBs since 2014. “The Cummins engines have a lot less unscheduled downtime and a lot less troubleshooting.”
While the new Cummins are off-the-shelf, the controls aren’t. Cummins partnered with Glendinning Products, a leader in marine engine controls for five decades, to ensure that shift and throttle controls are waterproof to International Electrotechnical Commission Standard IP67 (submerged 1 meter for 30 minutes). The incorporated Rollover Controller returns engines to neutral and idle if the boat rolls past 110 degrees. Programming ensures that the diesels won’t stall when shifting between hard ahead and hard astern in dangerous surf.
An open bridge helm provides visibility forward and down to the starboard-side rescue well. Across the boat, another station with jog-lever and engine controls overlooks the portside rescue well.
Capt. Vincent Daniello
Other Improvements
With more than 100 boats pounding through rough water for longer than a quarter-century, metal fatigue is an issue. Aluminum sections identified as trouble spots are replaced fleetwide, and individual boats are inspected and flagged for additional repairs. Operation was streamlined based on 25 years of experience too. “The basics of the boat were sound, but they’ve updated little things that make our day-to-day operation easier,” Whitlow says. “Something as simple as our tow reel—now it’s easier to use and requires less maintenance.”
“The LED lighting in the cabin is much brighter. It’s safer for people moving around,” Fortner adds. “In the engine room, you can see hazards more clearly.” New, bright LED floodlights now illuminate all around the boat, versus holding a searchlight on a specific spot. Other changes decrease maintenance time. When high-impact-plastic fender collars crack on older boats, aluminum studs are cut off and new fenders welded in place. Birdon, instead, reengineered detachable brackets. “The fact that we don’t have to weld those studs onto the hull is a huge advantage,” Fortner says, because it required disconnecting electronic engine controls and isolating battery chargers to preclude damage from electrical current used while arc-welding on aluminum hulls.
The Survivors’ Compartment (main cabin) includes all the gear that Coast Guard 47 MLB crews need for rescue.
Capt. Vincent Daniello
Crew Comfort
“The human performance people got involved, so we’re less susceptible to chronic fatigue,” Fortner says, which can be significant while spending long hours in rough seas. The reconfigured open bridge, for example, improves both operation and comfort. Previously, two Stidd chairs and two folding jump seats accommodated the boat’s typical crew. Now three Shoxs impact-absorbing seats across the front keep most eyes looking ahead and to the sides, while the port aft Shoxs seat swivels for someone scanning astern or watching a tow. Sound and vibration are also mitigated with new, quieter diesels, along with sound-dampening insulation and specialized deck systems.
There have been tweaks made during the project too. Initially, the starboard flying bridge control station had the steering jog-lever on the right and throttles on the left, while other helm stations positioned throttles on the right and jog-lever on the left. Those starboard station controls are now switched—a small detail that becomes critical when taking quick action in 20-foot breaking surf.
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Navigation and communication equipment, including a new Raymarine SIMS display, occupy the pilothouse dash.
Capt. Vincent Daniello
Electronics
While most of each boat’s radio equipment carries over through the refit, Birdon is installing the Coast Guard’s new Scalable Integrated Navigation System from Raymarine as well. The entire fleet, including some 47 MLBs not yet incorporated into Birdon’s refit schedule, will upgrade their electronics by 2026 for either primary navigation aboard small boats or redundancy on ships.
On older 47 MLBs, navigation and radar equipment might be noticeably different when crews switch between boats. Now operation, training, troubleshooting and spare parts will all become standard across the entire fleet. Future upgrades, such as adding FLIR cameras, which are not currently installed on 47 MLBs, can network with existing equipment.
Increased integration is particularly helpful. “Now we see AIS contacts right on the radar and plotter screen. It gives a better snapshot of what’s around,” Whitlow says. AIS alerts are more configurable too, providing “an extra layer of safety.”
Raymarine also added encrypted AIS messaging into the entire Coast Guard system. Radar and AIS targets are easily shared from one boat and dropped right onto another boat’s chart-plotter screen, or broadcast fleetwide. Search Action Plans or EPIRB coordinates relayed from shore can be uploaded directly onto navigation displays rather than manually entered aboard each boat, and shoreside command can monitor individual vessels in real time. Data sharing between Coast Guard and law-enforcement vessels utilizing Raymarine equipment facilitates interagency cooperation as well.
Why do Coast Guard men and women head offshore in small boats in weather that keeps others tied to the dock? “My pay is the reward I feel for serving the community, and the pride after a rescue, in knowing those people and your crew are safe,” Fortner says. “It’s just people helping people.”
The newly renovated 47 MLB is an excellent tool to that end. “I trust the boat to do what it is supposed to do,” he adds. “The lights stay burning, the shafts keep turning, and the boat stays upright to get us home safely.”
Specs (from USCG 47 MLB Operator’s Manual) LOA:48’11” (with rub rails)Beam Overall:15’0″ (with rub rails)Displacement:40,000 lb. (boat, full fuel, outfit; no crew or cargo)Freeboard Bow:6’8″Freeboard Amidships Deck Recess:2’2″Freeboard Aft:7’1″Draft:4’6″Overhead Clearance:18’6″Fuel Capacity:394 gal. (they fill only to 95 percent, which is 373 gal.)Potable Water Capacity:5 gal. Previous Power- Twin Detroit Diesel electronically controlled 6V92TA 435 bhp at 2,100 rpm
- Transmission: Reintjes WVS 234 UP, 2:1 reduction
- Props: 4-blade, 28″ diameter x 36″ pitch
- Cummins QSC8.3 530 bhp at 2,800 rpm
- Transmission: ZF 2:1 reduction
- Props: 4-blade, 27″ diameter x 27.75″ pitch
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