Superyachts in the rough

Once spent a couple of weeks on a supply boat out in the North sea. DUe to bad weather we were delayed in replacing anchor chains on an oil rig.

Once it was agreed we had done a Proper Job we headed back to Montrose into the Teeth of a gale /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I would compare the ride in the wheel house to what you see those fellas experience on one of those mechanical bulls and then appreciated why the only windows on the front of the superstructure were the bridge windows.

The waves were hitting the superstructure with considerable force however as these vessels are designed to tow 30,000 ton oil rigs there was power to spare .

I had spent 20 years deep sea but this was the first time I had seen a ship perform like this /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif The noise from the engine room was impressive, the engines were fully governed so running at constant speed however one minute the props were high and dry and the next moment they were fully immersed and getting us back up to speed so the noise the turbos made was quite something.

We d have got one of those " We fail to understand " letters if we had treated our old tramp steamers like this together with the final line..."You will attend this office on your return to explain same " ... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Yes tugs and supply ships can take bad weather head on .
 
[ QUOTE ]
I would compare the ride in the wheel house to what you see those fellas experience on one of those mechanical bulls

[/ QUOTE ]I can imagine... Surely not something I'd like to afford as a regular job, every given day!
I wouldn't decline if I had the opportunity to give it an occasional try, though.
Well, not that you guys could be interested in having tourists on board, I guess... /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
Tugboat on this forum used to be a Master of anchor handling tug / supply (AHTS) vessels in the North Sea, and I am sure that he has many interesting stories similar to Bilgediver of gales and storms encountered while supplying rigs.
 
You are right Gludy, there isn't much buoyancy in that bow. It is Aviva, ex Alfa, an Oceanco in the same ish series as Dilbar and Lady Lola. These are urgh heavily built up superstructure boats, like apartment blocks on smallish hulls.

Here is Aviva leaving Antibes yesterday evening, showing her fine bow

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I was out in those seas right after the 2007 GP in our little 58footer, heading westwards into the waves (we were berthed in Monaco, Cap D'Ail, for the race). They weren't that bad. We did the 20miles or so to Antibes without much fuss at 10kts. Have some nice video of the seas but dunno how to post video on here
 
Thanks Gludy, have emailed it.

The video was taken Monday morning 28/5/07, morning after 2007 Monaco GP. Strong westerly wind, 50kts +, but quite local wind so not much fetch and hence not really big seas. Boat is motoring at 10knots into the wind/waves. Boat was going from Cap Ferrat to Antibes (in South of France) and the video is shot just south of Nice. That Rainex stuff had just been applied to the window and worked really well.

I also sent you a vid of the monaco GP taken from up the mast of a sloop with a very tall mast, in case you can put that up too.
 
Different boats Chris. Your pic is Aviva 3, launched mid 2006, built by A&R. My pics and the bow-stuff pics earlier in the thread are Aviva 2, an Oceanco, ex Alfa 4. There was also an Aviva 1 knocking around, a Feadship, and it caught fire then got fixed, but it has been renamed, forgotten the name.
 
It's hard to judge from the video, but considering also the limited pitch, I'd say that waves weren't that bad, maybe 6' to 8'?
The roll is instead impressive for a head sea, that's were the absence of stabs really shows.
 
Mapis, yes, there wasn't much sea really. (Just to back up to where this discussion started, the original post on this thread showed superyachts in the rough, and some of the commentary said the pix were taken as the yachts left Monaco after the 2007 GP, in the strong winds that were blowing at the time. I'm saying there wasn't much sea really, which doesn't say much for the comfort of superyachts like Aviva, which is photographed above stuffing her bow on the very same day/location as my pictures!)

Below are 3 stills. The first one is in the evening after the GP, heading Monaco to Cap Ferrat/St Jean, about 7pm. The headland in the shot is Cap Ferrat. The next one is taken at the same time, a sunsqueeker 50-odd travelling parallel to us, doing just fine but perhaps bouncier ride than us. The 3rd pic is the following morning St Jean to Antibes. The wind blew all night but was local so the seas never got big, and I'd agree your guess of 6-8', max

The Fairline didn't roll much. There wasn't much rolling in the video - 10 degrees or so in the first couple of frames and virtually none for the rest of the video? I find the Fairline's ability in those "medium" seas exceptionally good. In the first pic below the foredeck isn't even wet but you can see from the bow spray that I was making good headway. This pic is taken in the same sea/location as Aviva, and her foredeck is slightly wetter. What's all that about??? :-)

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Wait, my comment re. rolling wasn't meant as a criticism towards your boat.
In fact I agree, she seems to be doing pretty well considering the conditions/size/type of hull.
Rather than comparing with Aviva (whose pic gave me a photoshop impression btw), I was actually thinking of this previous debate about the behaviour of different hulls.
When I said that the rolling was impressive I thought about what I'd expect in such conditions from a similar size D/SD boat with stabs: 2 or 3 degrees, maybe even less. Hardly noticeable, anyway.
 
Ok :-) Yes, i guess stabs would produce a pretty flat ride in that sea, becuase it wasn't that big a sea anyway. The spray in the video was just a result of the high windspeed locally.

Anyway this gives me a chance to post again that ferretti pic taken from my boat last usmmer. Actually it wasn't a rough day - we were all on the flybr and would have been drenched if there were constant waves like the one that hit the ferretti. I don't remeber well, but it must have been a freak wave. Photo is off Golfe Juan, travelling westwards, just before you turn to starboard to go between the Lerins Islands off Cannes

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Amazing pic, I must have lost your previous post.
Looking how the wave continues on the right side of the pic, it does seem pretty freak compared to general sea conditions.
How's that you weren't hit? Was the wave shorter than it looks, or were you going in the opposite direction?
Or was maybe just the hand of Neptune, hitting that boat whose crew didn't even bother to bring the fenders in?... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Over time I have become more concerned about how many boats cope with anything but slight seas.

There seems to be a tendency for designers to simply stretch a hull very often leaving the same bow rise for a much longer boat. I really noticed this on the trader 575 which has about the same height of bow as the much smaller Trader 41. The Trader 575 hull is tiny compared to the Marlow 57E hull.

Then there is the new Trader 42 that seems to generate huge spray and waves in even a very moderate sea as per the recent boat test report.

Looking at the Ferretti I think that the problem is caused more by the shape of the hull than any freak wave. I agree that the bow rise seems too small.

It is for these reasons that before you even commit to purchasing a boat you really need to know something about what its like with a sea trial. I think a sea trial where you have to pay an agreed sum for the trial deductable should you proceed to purchase the boat is the way to go. Even then it is very difficult to test a boat in heavy seas and so you have to rely on test reports and word of mouth and frankly most test reports seem to praise sea handling on any boat = the recent Trader 42 report was a noticable exception.
 
Err, simply stretching a hull, keeping bow shape identical, will have the effect of increasing the buoyancy in the bow. Not reduce it.

Now I do agree, strongly, that lamely stretching a design is often for the worst. But that is because of the temptation to also stretch the accommodations and superstructure forward. Shifting more weight toward the bow, and unbalancing the design. I think design stretching is more of a balance issue than a hull shape issue.

Kelly
 
Good video, jfm. Sq58 seems to ride nicely thru that stuff. Seems about average sea conditions for Med this year. We had quite a few windy days on our hols
 
Come on guys. With respect what on earth do any of us know about naval architecture? And you're confusing seakeeping with generation of spray. Everybody acknowledges that the Nelson type hull as used in countless pilot boats and harbourmasters launches and copied by the likes of Aquastar and Dale, is one of the best hulls around. Yet you only have to see one in a slight sea to appreciate that the hull generates huge clouds of spray soaking the deck and superstructure. Is it a lousy hull because of that? Of course not
The question of the Trader 42 is different, the point being that the hull, being aimed at the leisure market, should not throw up such a lot of spray. After all, if you've just shelled out half a million for a new boat, you have the right to expect not to be soaked every time you go out. But this has nothing to do with seakeeping
As for the Ferretti, you can tell absolutely nothing from just one photo. You would have to be on the boat yourself to judge how it rides the waves. As mentioned in previous posts, Ferrettis are one of the few planing hulled boats to be CE marked Cat A so presumably, the hull has been designed and tested for adequate stability
 
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