Thread: Boating rules

Fully agree. Must add as it is funny, one stubborn old girl HMAS Vampire now a museum in Sydney had a soft spot for large swells due to her age and being a little frail.

The MEO ( Engineering type) was rather worried one day. After a week or two mostly a long way out from Jarvis Bay. We had a very big swell is a sea state 7 or 8. He was worried her old back would break due to the flexing caused by the swell. Captain and MEO settled on safety 101 and put our backside to the swell and slowed to a crawl to minimize the twist and flex.

Unfortunately two side effects- It was the wrong way to get back to Sydney which was not a popular direction and steering a slow ship with waves up the stern is a job from hell I have been driving 90 degrees of course on that and two other occasion both between NZ and OZ.

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

The POMS show it will with 5 double Decker buses still being a bit shorter

Massive wave is southern hemisphere record, scientists believe - BBC News

Somewhere under that wave your old mate "Sharky" was lurking, James..

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Fully agree. Must add as it is funny, one stubborn old girl HMAS Vampire now a museum in Sydney had a soft spot for large swells due to her age and being a little frail.

The MEO ( Engineering type) was rather worried one day. After a week or two mostly a long way out from Jarvis Bay. We had a very big swell is a sea state 7 or 8. He was worried her old back would break due to the flexing caused by the swell. Captain and MEO settled on safety 101 and put our backside to the swell and slowed to a crawl to minimize the twist and flex.

Unfortunately two side effects- It was the wrong way to get back to Sydney which was not a popular direction and steering a slow ship with waves up the stern is a job from hell I have been driving 90 degrees of course on that and two other occasion both between NZ and OZ.

Wrong direction maybe but I bet the Crew enjoyed their 3 weeks in 'frisco.

I remember many years ago looking at the sea round about Cape Otway. And going pas, heading east, was a very large bulk carrier, probably iron ore heading for Newcastle or Port Kembla. It was impressive - it was just the wrong length for the seas. As each wave passed it, it would alternately have solid water coming over the bow while the taffrail had water slopping over it, with the turn of the bilge visible midships, and having solid water over the deck midships with the bow bulge and the top part of the rudder visible. My immediate thought was "will it break its back?"

I was in a survey ship only about 55m long, and we were just slowly moving up and down, admittedly pitching a bit - judging from the echosounder record, that swell was only a bit over ten metres.

Originally Posted by 4bee

Wrong direction maybe but I bet the Crew enjoyed their 3 weeks in 'frisco.

A early opener as well. Not that I would know

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I remember many years ago looking at the sea round about Cape Otway. And going pas, heading east, was a very large bulk carrier, probably iron ore heading for Newcastle or Port Kembla. It was impressive - it was just the wrong length for the seas. As each wave passed it, it would alternately have solid water coming over the bow while the taffrail had water slopping over it, with the turn of the bilge visible midships, and having solid water over the deck midships with the bow bulge and the top part of the rudder visible. My immediate thought was "will it break its back?"

I was in a survey ship only about 55m long, and we were just slowly moving up and down, admittedly pitching a bit - judging from the echosounder record, that swell was only a bit over ten metres.

Its not the size that gets me. The Amazing power of a 10 metre wall of water is not something many of us have been able to see. 55m or 147m for my favourite (Hobart) or the tiniest tinny. Respect of our oceans power is needed and in my case given plus

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Fully agree. Must add as it is funny, one stubborn old girl HMAS Vampire now a museum in Sydney had a soft spot for large swells due to her age and being a little frail.

The MEO ( Engineering type) was rather worried one day. After a week or two mostly a long way out from Jarvis Bay. We had a very big swell is a sea state 7 or 8. He was worried her old back would break due to the flexing caused by the swell. Captain and MEO settled on safety 101 and put our backside to the swell and slowed to a crawl to minimize the twist and flex.

Unfortunately two side effects- It was the wrong way to get back to Sydney which was not a popular direction and steering a slow ship with waves up the stern is a job from hell I have been driving 90 degrees of course on that and two other occasion both between NZ and OZ.

We took Vampire thru a typhoon off Hong Kong back in '69, no problem. The Daring class were an excellent heavy weather ship. The only problem was getting from Fwd to Aft & vice versa, for change of watch in the Boiler & engine rooms. The stokers mess was 3Quebec , right aft, tiffies mess 3 papa2, just fwd of it. The only way to go fwd or aft in rough weather was the catwalk over the torpedo tubes. The upper deck was out of bounds. In real rough weather, the catwalk was out of bounds, greenies would wash right over it. The Darings had a low centre of gravity, and tended not to roll a great deal.

This all changed , when they modernised her. All that extra topweight changed her CG, and brought to play other forces not usually present. I didn't serve on the Vampire after modernisation, so can't comment on how she handled the rough stuff, but one thing welcomed by the bridge watchkeepers was the enclosed bridge. They did remove the torpedo tubes, which would have offset the topweight a little [ we fired the last 21 inch torpedo from a RAN destroyer at HMS London , 1969 off Singapore. She radioed " well done Vampire, your torpedo passed under our bow". London fired her 4.5 guns [offset] at Vampire and her gunnery was spot on. I'm glad they were on our side.

A vessel not suited for real rough weather was the Fremantle class Patrol boat. The deck of the Senior Sailors mess accommodation[ port side just behind the galley, about midships.] used to pop up & down like a wobble board, and made the same noise, when punching into a seaway. Once, on the way to New Caledonia while doing my morning rounds I found a crack in the weld at the aft end of the bridge structure. About 3 inches long, sent off a defect signal, tactfully suggested to the Skipper perhaps we should not punch into the swell as much as we had been. All good. The Buffer threw a coat of paint over it, out of sight out of mind. Ground out and rewelded at Waterhen on our return. All good. [ tried to get a few extra days in Noumea getting it fixed, we were having a great time, but the Fleet Commander saw through that, I think the comment was " the departure date will not be altered " with an implied " Good try ".

The old Vampire showing her style through a swell.

HMAS Vampire - YouTube

After refit, tarted up like a Nee Soon virgin.

HMAS Sydney and HMAS Vampire - 1972 RAS Vietnam 1972 - YouTube

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

The POMS show it will with 5 double Decker buses still being a bit shorter

Massive wave is southern hemisphere record, scientists believe - BBC News

The inference from that info is that particular wave has the record as the biggest ever in the southern hemisphere, but it is only a coincidence that it was actually recorded.

There would have been many more over the centuries that escaped judgement by tech that wasn't in the right place and time.

It's only the biggest recorded wave, south of the equator.

In about 1997 or 98 I was doing some cray data recording on a boat in a bay near Flinders Vic. We were only inshore in Bass Strait, not even close to being anywhere near to the edge of the shelf, or open ocean.

Big swell, no deckhand this day, skipper talking on his mobile, big set coming, I kicked the boat into gear, skipper nodded (kept talking), cruised out over the first feathering crest while watching the sounder.

We went from 15 to 25m, then back to 15. Seemed about right going by the size of the boat (42 foot Randall.........14m).

DL