MV Krait Model Boat Kit – Modellers Shipyard (1021)

The MV Krait Model Boat Kit is manufactured by Modellers Shipyard. The MV Krait Model Boat Kit is expertly designed and highly detailed. Laser-cut plywood is clean and accurate. Construction is double plank on bulkhead and all parts and fittings are of the best quality.

The building instructions comprise 109 pages of highly detailed written instructions with colour photos and drawings showing every step of the construction. A unique feature of this kit is that it has fairing laser score lines on the bulkheads to make the fairing accurate and symmetrical.

View the complete instructions here – M. V. Krait Instructions

History of the MV Krait

Built-in 1934 in Japan and originally named Kofuku Maru (Happiness or Good Fortune), Krait collected fish from fishermen and ports around the Rhio Archipelago and took the catch to the Singapore markets.

It took food, water and other supplies to the fishing fleet.

Confined to port early in World War II, the boat was used by Captain Bill Reynolds to evacuate hundreds of civilians to nearby Sumatra and when the Japanese continued to advance he took it to Colombo. It was soon proposed that the vessel be used as part of a covert operation.

Renamed Krait (after a deadly species of snake) its most famous hour came in 1943 when a 14-strong company of British and Australian army and naval personnel set out on a daring commando night raid on shipping in the Singapore Roads.

At dawn on 27 September 1943, Singapore Harbour shook to violent explosions. “Operation Jaywick” had attacked the heart of Japanese-occupied Singapore.

The raiders, mostly RAN volunteers, were led by a British officer, Major Ivan Lyon. They had travelled over 4,500 kilometres through Japanese-held islands in a rickety-looking fishing boat, Krait.

Codenamed Operation, Jaywick, Krait was disguised as a Japanese fishing boat and successfully sailed to within striking distance of Singapore. Six operatives then deployed three two-man folding canoes to island hop over three nights and finally reach Singapore Harbour where they attached magnetic limpet mines to the hulls of Japanese merchant vessels. Six of the mines exploded damaging some 37,000 tonnes of shipping. The operation destroyed or badly damaged seven Japanese ships.

Krait then operated out of Darwin as a coastwatch and intelligence support vessel in Indonesia. Commissioned HMAS Krait in 1944, the vessel witnessed the Japanese surrender at Ambon in September 1945 and after the war was handed to the British Borneo Civil Affairs Unit.

The MV Krait played a significant role in Australian WW2 military history.