Low windage yacht.

I was thinking of a wind surfer
I feel for him or her or both
it sort of reminds me of a puzzle I di 14 plus years ago
visualize a palette jack scale it up to at least 300 meters and add a pair of hulls
(freight pod weights in at 230,000 tonne minimum)
Then think of it as a freight catamaran which can submerge under its load
add a port freight finger that protrudes from the wharf with pre pack Iron ore
the cat takes on seawater and submerges under its load shuts its bilge and pumps out the bilges taking the load
(freight pod full of ore) backs out and does the reverse on delivery port.
no waiting for 11 days at port in W.A. just a few hours
its only part of a freight system puzzle I did trying to get my brain back together after a head injury

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Ramona said..
Why is the trawler so low down?

good observation Ramona

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Ramona said..
Why is the trawler so low down?

Coz it works in the Coral Sea not the Tasman?

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Ramona said..
Why is the trawler so low down?

full load of fuel. had a mate who use to leave port decks awash with full fuel work breaksea spit any weather for 2 weeks come home no fuel full cold room 10 inches out of water fuel weighs a bit especially if your burning 500 liters a night or on the big boats 1000 if you have been on the breaksea in 50 the tasman looks like a lake

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PhoenixStar said..

I've more respect for Breaksea than the Wide Bay Bar. Huge currents through the gaps and the waves don't know which way to go so they can stand up on end like pyramids. Nasty to navigate before GPS.

I took the short cut between the spit and the light once some years ago at 07.30 in the morning. The pilotage and chart advice is not to attempt the passage on a running tide or only do it on a slack tide and preferably without boisterous wind and sea conditions.

On that occasion I am sure it was slack high tide, wind about zero and open sea about 1/2 metre. A trawler was coming out and on the VHF he said you will be fine.

We were fine but it was still scary. In the passage it was almost "mill pond" except for the glassy patches and rippley patches caused by the overfalls. It was also scary because the water is so clear you can see the sandy bottom which was 40 or 50 foot below. I started having serious doubts about the accuracy of my sounder.

The yacht was a 42 footer with an engine that was 1 hp per foot so it was not like you could put the hammer down and squirt out of trouble at more than 7 knots.

We had come up from Mooloolaba overnight on the outside of Fraser and had planned on doing the short cut in the morning the evening before if the conditions were right. Navigation was done on a paper chart using GPS plots marked on the chart every 15 minutes. The year was about 1996 and the GPS unit was one of the blue and white Magellan hand helds which were the first of the hand helds.

Though I now have a Garmin 75 dv chart plotter and a Garmin 72h hand held, I still plot my positions on a paper chart and practice plotting with a hand held compass, parallel rules and dividers and compare the results. The chart plotter is really only for when the whips are cracking so hard that you just need a quick fix to know you are not heading for a grounding or it is pitch black and you are trying to make a narrow entry.

If it is pitch black and you are trying to make a narrow entry, KY Jelly can also be invaluable.