USCGC Raymond Evans is the tenth vessel in the United States Coast Guard's cutter. All the vessels are named after members of the Coast Guard, or its precursor services, who are remembered for their heroism. Names had already been assigned for the first fourteen vessels, when Commander Raymond Evans died, and the USCG Commandant announced that the next Sentinel class cutter would be named after him. Joseph Napier, who was originally scheduled to be the namesake of the tenth vessel, had his name moved to the beginning of the second list of heroes names, and will now be the namesake of the fifteenth vessel. The vessel was delivered to the Coast Guard, for pre-commissioning trials, on June 25, 2014. On August 20, 2014, an open house was held to allow residents of Key West, Florida to tour the vessel. The vessel was commissioned on September 6, 2014.
Design
The cutters were designed to replace the shorter s. Raymond Evans is equipped with a remote-control 25 mmBushmaster autocannon and four, crew-served M2HB.50-caliber machine guns. It has a bow thruster for maneuvering in crowded anchorages and channels. It also has small underwater fins for coping with the rolling and pitching caused by large waves. It is equipped with a stern launching ramp, like the and the eight failed expanded Island-class cutters. It has a complement of twenty-two crew members. Like the Marine Protector class, and the cancelled extended Island-class cutters, the Sentinel-class cutters deploy the Short Range ProsecutorRigid-hulled inflatable in rescues and interceptions. According to Marine Log, modifications to the Coast Guard vessels from the Stan 4708 design include an increase in speed from, fixed-pitch rather than variable-pitch propellers, stern launch capability, and watertight bulkheads. Raymond Evans has an overall length of, a beam of, and a displacement of. Its draft is and it has a maximum speed of over. The Sentinel-class cutters have endurances of five days and a range of.
