HMAS Ardent (P 87)

HMAS Ardent (P 87/A243) was an Attack class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Design and construction
The Attack class was ordered in 1964 to operate in Australian waters as patrol boats (based on lessons learned through using the Ton class minesweepers on patrols of Borneo during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, and to replace a variety of old patrol, search-and-rescue, and general-purpose craft. Initially, nine were ordered for the RAN, with another five for Papua New Guinea's Australian-run coastal security force, although another six ships were ordered to bring the class to twenty vessels. The patrol boats had a displacement of 100 tons at standard load and 146 tons at full load, were 107.6 ft in length overall, had a beam of 20 ft, and draughts of 6.4 ft at standard load, and 7.3 ft at full load. Propulsion machinery consisted of two 16-cylinder Paxman YJCM diesel engines, which supplied 3460 shp to the two propellers.  The vessels could achieve a top speed of 24 kn, and had a range of 1200 nmi at 13 kn. The ship's company consisted of three officers and sixteen sailors. Main armament was a bow-mounted Bofors 40 mm gun, supplemented by two .50 calibre M2 Browning machine guns and various small arms. The ships were designed with as many commercial components as possible: the Attacks were to operate in remote regions of Australia and New Guinea, and a town's hardware store would be more accessible than home base in a mechanical emergency.

Ardent was laid down by Evans Deakin and Company at Brisbane, Queensland in October 1967, launched on 27 April 1968, and commissioned on 26 October 1968.

Operational history
Ardent was transferred to the Hobart Port Division of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve on 18 June 1982.

The patrol boat was paid off on 6 January 1994. She was later recommissioned with the pennant number A243 and used as a navigation training ship for junior warfare officers based in Sydney. Ardent was replaced by the Defence Maritime Services vessel Seahorse Mercator in December 1994, and was later decommissioned from service.

Fate
Following decommissioning, the ship was marked for preservation in Darwin as a museum ship. Ardent was instead sold into private hands, sailed to Singapore, and converted into a pleasure craft.