You can tour a Vietnam-era swift boat Sunday in San Pedro

Small, fast and powerful, the swift boat was ideally suited to patrol the coastline and jungle-lined rivers of Vietnam.

At about noon Sunday, that history will power into the Port of Los Angeles, where Swift Boat PCF-816 will be docked through Thursday at San Pedro’s Downtown Harbor — near Fifth Street and Harbor Boulevard — for free dockside public tours.

It’s part of a Califoia coast tour from San Diego to Santa Barbara that also will include stops at Marina del Rey (July 29-31) and Long Beach Rainbow Harbor (Aug. 3-6).

Visitors also will have a chance to talk to about a dozen swift boat veterans who served in Vietnam.

The open house tour marks the 50th aiversary of the start of the swift boat service in Vietnam.

“For a lot of these guys, it was the first time they’d seen or been on a swift boat” since the war, said Mark Gallant, regulatory agency liaison for the Maritime Museum of San Diego which owns and operates the only restored Vietnam-era swift boat in the United States. “When those engines start up — and they’re fairly loud — they can become pretty emotional.”

While Swift Boat PCF (Patrol Craft Fast)-816 never served in Vietnam, it was used throughout the war to train Vietnam-bound sailors in Coronado.

Decommissioned and overhauled

After the war, the Navy donated PCF-816 to the Republic of Malta, and it was decommissioned in 2011 as one of the last two PCFs to be in service.

The Maritime Museum of San Diego took it over in 2012, when a full overhaul began that brought it back to its original condition. Today, PCF-816 is a popular highlight among exhibits at the museum that offers hourlong harbor tours on the boat.

Between 300 and 400 swift boats were built for the Navy.

Originally patteed after the civilian craft used to shuttle oil workers and supplies to offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, the Navy’s 51-foot-long swift boats were used in Vietnam from 1965-70. Their mission: to provide 24-hour surveillance along the 1,200-mile South Vietnam coastline. Later, the boats were used on the deep water rivers and canals to deny the enemy access to those waterways.

Fifty service members lost their lives while serving on the swift boats during the war.

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Fast with firepower

They were cramped, uncomfortable (the galley was a hot plate, the “head” a bucket) and dangerous with quarter-inch aluminum alloy hulls that made them vulnerable to incoming fire.

Sleeping quarters below contained a few available bunks, but the boats’ six crew members generally slept on deck between watch shifts.

But despite their drawbacks, swift boats were well-armed, with mounted machine guns and mortars for firepower. And they were relatively fast, featuring twin 12-cylinder diesel engines that pushed the boats up to speeds of 30 mph.

The coastal tour — the schedule can be found at www.sdmaritime.org — also gives the vets a chance to tell their story to a new generation, Gallant said.

Arrival times at host ports will be about noon, with departures at about 9 a.m. Tours generally are offered throughout the day while the boat is in port.

PCF-816 retus to San Diego on Aug. 6.

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