After wanting to go to the PTWB for many years, I finally made it!
Lady Washington dockside. She sailed every day.
Many, many more pictures follow –
Continue reading ‘Pictures from Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival’
Archive for September, 2007 Page 3 of 4
William Dyce Neptune Resigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea
Warning: disgusting definition follows
Rimjob (Submarine Service): When a petty officer is so pissed-off at a particular (half-assed) junior officer he strikes a “rimjob deal” with the Wardroom messcranks so that they provide him with the offending officer’s coffee cup or water glass. The enlisted crewman may then coat the rim of this cup/glass from the sweaty part of the back of his scrotum; the messcrank will then set the Wardroom table appropriately. This is how most submarine messmen earned their “fish” without ever having to know how the engineroom works (they always had to know the DC stuff, though; that sig was never given away.)
This and many, many other colorful US Navy slang expressions are defined for you at Wikipedia. So click on over and get the gouge.
A spectacular entrance: The Queen Mary 2 luxury liner made its maiden call to the Port of San Francisco on February 4, 2007. Surrounded by a flotilla of ships, yachts and escorted by a San Francisco fire boat, Queen Mary 2 circled the harbor before docking at Pier 27. Six cameras were used.
via BoingBoing
A 1,000-year-old Viking longship is thought to have been discovered under a pub car park on Merseyside.
The vessel is believed to lie beneath 6ft to 10ft (2m to 3m) of clay by the Railway Inn in Meols, Wirral, where Vikings are known to have settled.
Experts believe the ship could be one of Britain’s most significant archaeological finds.
Professor Stephen Harding, of the University of Nottingham, is now seeking funds to pay for an excavation.
The Viking expert used ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment to pinpoint the ship’s whereabouts.
He believes the vessel could be carefully removed and exhibited in a museum.
Professor Harding said: “The next stage is the big one. Using the GPR technique only cost £450, but we have to think carefully about what to do next.
“Although we still don’t know what sort of vessel it is, it’s very old for sure and its Nordic clinker design, position and location suggests it may be a transport vessel from the Viking settlement period if not long afterwards.
Link to full story on the Beeb
There seems to be very little in the UK that doesn’t involve pubs in some way.
From a sign seen in Port Townsend, during the Wooden Boat Festival.
In an earlier post, we reported that a rare Chinese river dolphin was feared extinct.
This might not be true.
Tribe Denounces Whale Shooting
NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) — The Makah Tribal Council on Sunday denounced the killing of a California gray whale that was harpooned and shot several times off Washington’s coast, calling it “a blatant violation of our law” and promising to prosecute those responsible.
But one of the men suspected in the killing told a newspaper Sunday that he was “feeling kind of proud” and whaling is “in the blood.”
Link to full story
The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover in the world today. The Aioi Works of Japan’s Diesel United, Ltd built the first engines and is where some of these pictures were taken.
It is available in 6 through 14 cylinder versions, all are inline engines. These engines were designed primarily for very large container ships. Ship owners like a single engine/single propeller design and the new generation of larger container ships needed a bigger engine to propel them.
The cylinder bore is just under 38″ and the stroke is just over 98″. Each cylinder displaces 111,143 cubic inches (1820 liters) and produces 7780 horsepower. Total displacement comes out to 1,556,002 cubic inches (25,480 liters) for the fourteen cylinder version.
Some facts on the 14 cylinder version: Total engine weight: 2300 tons (The crankshaft alone weighs 300 tons.) Length: 89 feet Height: 44 feet Maximum power: 108,920 hp at 102 rpm Maximum torque: 5,608,312 lb/ft at 102rpm Fuel consumption at maximum power is 0.278 lbs per hp per hour (Brake Specific Fuel Consumption). Fuel consumption at maximum economy is 0.260 lbs/hp/hour. At maximum economy the engine exceeds 50% thermal efficiency. That is, more than 50% of the energy in the fuel in converted to motion.
For comparison, most automotive and small aircraft engines have BSFC figures in the 0.40-0.60 lbs/hp/hr range and 25-30% thermal efficiency range.Even at its most efficient power setting, the big 14 consumes 1,660 gallons of heavy fuel oil per hour.
Much more here: http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/
In contrast, the 2000hp RIB drug-runner special set up with 8 outboards has a specific fuel consumption of 0.0198 lb/hp*hr, or 14.5 times less efficient than this bad boy. See, bigger IS better.
Thanks to gCaptain for the find
The PT Wooden Boat Festival kicks off with music this evening, and the real show starts Friday. I’m heading up tomorrow and will bring back lots of pics to share.
More Kelly Brook from Fish Tales.
BUBBA’S JUKUNG “PUTU KAI”
Swift and graceful, these canoes have been used by the people of Bali Indonesia for fishing for more than 1000 years. These Balinese ‘perahu’, as they are commonly called, are about five meters in length and one-half meter wide and can hold two to three passengers (takes two people to handle one). Small and narrow enough to be hauled up on the beach, “jukung” are equipped with double outriggers for stabilization.
Bubba is the founder and owner of Bubba Burger in Kapaa and Hanalei, Kauai, Hawaii. I have eaten at both, and they are ono. And he he has an outrigger canoe. Life is good.
LINK to webpages of photos, building history, launch pics
In 2004, Richard Davison, the managing director of Crompton Marine, and his girlfriend, Ellen George, were arrested after Spanish authorities conducting anti-drug smuggling operations seized a number of boats sold by their company and reported them to British customs officials. The two were suspected of using Crompton Marine as a front for supplying high-speed inflatable boats to illegal drug merchants, advertising them as “high-speed, uncatchable craft that have a low radar signature.”
After the couple’s arrest, a third party, Ian Rush, allegedly carried on their underground boat trade under the name Nautexco Marine and was also arrested. Evidence presented during Rush’s 2007 trial indicated that Davison and George (and later, Rush) were making secret deals for boats like the one pictured above: craft between 30 ft. and 60 ft. long, costing as much as £350,000 ($680,000 US), and featuring up to eight 250-horsepower engines (with a total fuel storage capacity of 15,000 litres) that enabled them to outrun pursuers at speeds up 60 knots (70 mph). The craft were designed with low profiles (to avoid radar detection) and were painted grey or black to make them difficult to spot on the water. Crompton (and Nautexco) Marine’s primary customers were said to be smugglers who used the craft for transporting drugs and other contraband between north Africa and southern Spain.
Burning 900 liters/hour (238 GPH) at full power… plus the noise….
- Link to story at the Daily Mail
- Compton Marine gallery page, if you want to shop for one of these obscenities
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