page_title: Bollinger Shipyards
section_title: Marine Protector cutters
hierarchical_section_title: Bollinger Shipyards / Coast Guard vessels / Marine Protector cutters
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Cochito (WPB 87329), homeported in Little Creek, Virginia, launches its small boat, Cochito One, via its stern ramp on August 7, 2004, while patrolling the Potomac River. Washington Reagan National Airport’s Air Traffic Control Tower is seen in the background. Stern ramp launching allows rapid, safe deployments and recoveries of the small boat. It is quicker, safer and more efficient than launching a small boat over the side with a davit. Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary small boats from Washington, DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland teamed with Cochito and its small boat, during the Marine Safety and Security patrol. Cochito is a 92 ton, 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat, commissioned on 24 March 2001, and homeported in Little Creek, Virginia. It is one of 54 Coast Guard Marine Protector Class vessels.
context_page_description: Bollinger Shipyards is an American constructor of ships, workboats and patrol vessels.
  Its thirteen shipyards and forty drydocks are located in Louisiana and Texas. Its drydocks range in capacity from vessels of 100 tons displacement to 22,000 tons displacement. The firm was founded in 1946.
context_section_description: Bollinger secured the contract to build approximately fifty Marine Protector cutters.
  These 87 foot (27 m) vessels were staffed by a crew of 10.  Uniquely for Coast Guard vessels of this size they were designed to be capable of being crewed by crews of mixed sex.  These high speed vessels were lightly armed, mounting just two Browning M2 fifty caliber machine guns.  But they were equipped with a stern launching ramp, capable of launching and retrieving a high speed pursuit boat while the cutter was still in motion.  The launch and retrieval of the pursuit boat required just one sailor to remain on deck.
  Over 70 vessels were constructed, before the production line was shut down, with 4 being built for other nations, and 4 being built for the United States Navy, although those vessels are manned and operated by the Coast Guard.
caption: Marine Protector showing its stern launching ramp with transom raised.
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