It was a short clip of the M/V Explorer from January of
2005, south of the Alaskan island chain, when she was hit
by a 50 foot rogue wave, in 30 foot seas.  Far be it from
anyone on this list to be qualified to second guess the
officers on this ship.

BTW, she is currently sitting at anchor outside of Port
Everglades.

The other clips that are generally shown on YouTube are of
life as it happens in the real shipping world - that is why
there are so many clips of heavy weather.  Sometimes its
miserable, and sometimes you pray the ship holds together.
However, that is life - they rarely turn around because the
weather is bad.

The clips do give you an idea of some of the incredible
racking, hogging, and sagging stresses that the ships must
endure.  Thus at least you can gain a conceptual
understanding of why they occasionally break in two as they
get older.

Dave Legrow
(not on)T'III
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com

Since the subject has come up, it is well documented that in a seaway of
30 foot average waves the chances of a 50 footer is quite high. There is
a slight chance of one 90 feet high.
Issues such as this are not a private matter or entitled to be buried
under a rug. They are legitimate topics of debate and discussion.

Regards,
Mike

Here are several more clips. All but one are pretty spectacular watching.
They are on my video  web page, but without comments, so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szk83cONAqM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPYodT4jl04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgt-yqqz7oM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNaYjQG1S6w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2TXkmX--wc

Mike

Capt. Mike Maurice
Beaverton Oregon(Near Portland)

Or you could buy a Willard 30 or 40 with a slippery, full-displacement hull
whose scantlings are battleship thick. Remember the posting about the new
Sea Ray on autopilot in the Houston shipping channel? Something went wrong
and she did a hard right at 15 to 19mph. The banks were mud and her hull
folded like an accordion leaving only the deck forward of the helm. A man on
the forward queen-sized bed was thrown against the midship bulkhead, but
wasn't badly injured. The boat was a total loss.

A Willard would have dented the mud. Buy quality.

Ron Rogers
whose Willard 40 is NOT
for sale.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arild Jensen" elnav@telus.net

| The scary part being its not only older ships that break up but relatively
| new vessels.
| Blame a trend in design to reduce scantling size to reduce cost of
building.
| Remember many yayrds quote price based on weight of hul material.
|
| Translating this into the recreational boat market, same issue applies.
| With cost of resin escalating in lock step with crude oil prices (feed
| stock) al builders are being squeezed between agreed sales price from
before
| when contract was signed with reality of current prices in resin etc.
|
| Demand for more fuel efficient hulls often means a need to reduce weight
of
| total boat.
| This in turn leads to having to find ways to reduce weight in all aspects
of
| boat construction.
| Scantling size, bulkhead construction, furnituer and interior layout al
come
| under scrutiny. Some companies look to resin infusion to save on material
and most look to
| building interiors from lighter materials ( read thinner).

I went to the videos Mike suggested and the first was disturbing. A bunch of
casual idiots delivering what appears to be a superyacht. Their attitude
resulted in injuries to two crew members.

Then I went on to the second one called Marejada - fantastic. When I grow up
and win Powerball, I'm gonna buy one! This is a rescue/salvage ship of great
design and power. With a helicopter in overwatch, she's plowing directly
into significant head seas and just rising and falling to each one, busting
through without apparent loss of speed. I strongly recommend the videos by
MedlineIII as they are inspirational. He does one amazing thing. He
juxtaposes the tank tests of this magnificent vessel to her actually
performing the same actions at sea. She does even better in real life. It is
extraordinary. If she was coming to get me, I'd have every confidence she'd
make it out and back. Just watch this fellows videos while listening to the
beautiful music. Of course, she must have a helluva fuel bill! {;*D)

I'm going back to look at more of his videos and watch this magnificent
ship. She is either amazingly stable or has some honking stabilizers.

Thanks Mike,
Ron  Rogers

Latest issue of Boating mag has a primer on generators (p. 88). They claim 2
and 4 cylinder gensets vibrate more than 3 and 6 cylinders models.

I always thought a 3-cylinder was the shake-rattle-and-roll king. I am in
the market for an 8 to 10 KW genset and was avoiding the 3s. Have I been
operating in a fog of blissful ignorance...again?

Bob

Robert Calhoun Smith Jr
M/V MARY KATHRYN
Hatteras 58 LRC
The Jib Room, Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas

These are amazing Mike.  The video of Mara changing out lighthouse keepers
blew me away.  It looks incredibly dangerous but appears to be normal
procedure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNZnM7qOmuI&mode=related&search=

Carl