Simply ... cannot ... resist ...

[Nobody]

Yes, that's a nice and famous place. When I was there Scandinavia and the ships were not finished yet. Switzerland not even started. Still an enormous never boring place to be.


Edit:
Also interesting and not unrelated: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0120z75/James_Mays_Toy_Stories_The_Great_Train_Race/

[Carthaginian]

A 65' self-righting hull?
Man, wonder how much one of those costs when they decommission them. That would make one hell of a houseboat!

[Nobody]

A 65' self-righting hull?
Man, wonder how much one of those costs when they decommission them. That would make one hell of a houseboat!

Ask them ;). You wouldn't be the first one to do this, though most of them end up somewhere else (e.g. Iceland) or in museums.
Just keep in mind they run on donations only.

The 44.2 m "Wilhelm Kaisen" is likely going to be the next Ship to be decommissioned next year. It's the 2nd sister ship of the "John T. Essberger" which by now has safely arrived in Speyer. Her 3rd sister was sold to China in 1988 and later scrapped.

[Borys]

WoW!

[Carthaginian]

LOL... I wouldn't think it would be in my price range, Nobody.
A similar vessel would be our own Point-class Coast Guard cutters. I recently saw one of these listed for the bargain price of 519,000 Euros. It had, of course, been out of commission for some time now and already been refitted as a dive boat.

I would like to, as a sort of 'life project', acquire something like an old shrimp boat or crew boat and reconfigure her as a houseboat. Having a vessel which was self-righting would make for a much safer vessel...

Of course, me being virtually broke (plenty of money incoming, but little in the way of savings) prevents me from acting on it at this time.

[Nobody]

LOL... I wouldn't think it would be in my price range, Nobody.
A similar vessel would be our own Point-class Coast Guard cutters. I recently saw one of these listed for the bargain price of 519,000 Euros. It had, of course, been out of commission for some time now and already been refitted as a dive boat.

I would like to, as a sort of 'life project'[...]. Having a vessel which was self-righting would make for a much safer vessel...

Same here. ;D
Although self-righting is good for the ship, it is not necessarily for the people on board.

Anyway I did ask them and got an answer already. The one you likely saw in the capsize-test video, the 19.9 m, 38 tons "Eiswette" (~ice bet) cost 5 million to build, tough it has only one engine and no living quarters. The current (and most likely for the next 25 years) flagship Hermann Marwede (46 m, 404 tons) was build for 13 million in 2003.
They did answer that decommissioned ships are usually to other SAR organizations (if they are interested), but in rare cases are sold to private persons or firms for "six digit figures", as it happend with the Eiswette in November 2008 and the Fritz Behrens in August 2009.

Anyway wouldn't it be just plain cool to have something like this as a "yacht"? Sturdy, fast, self-righting, living quarters for 4, radar echo-sounding, homing, autopilot, hospital a "daughter-boat" and the ability to get rid of annoying neighbors with 2200 tons of water per hour (600 liters a second) up to 130 m range through its two "fire fighting monitors".


Something else:
The latest ship (SK 32) has left its slip. Can anyone explain me how that hull can have so little draft?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JmLId1GW2A
I mean, it's build from metal, not plastic. 57 tons of aluminum, to be precise.

[Walter]

Can anyone explain me how that hull can have so little draft?

Uhm... Empty hull? With lots of air inside? Made of aluminum which has a density of 2,800 kg/m3 while steel is in the 7,400-8,000 kg/m3 range?

[Nobody]

Can anyone explain me how that hull can have so little draft?

Uhm... Empty hull? With lots of air inside? Made of aluminum which has a density of 2,800 kg/m3 while steel is in the 7,400-8,000 kg/m3 range?

Yes of course. But it looks like the hull is barley touching the water.

[Walter]

If I got it right, 57 tons of aluminum displaces 57 tons of water and 57 tons of water has a volume of 57m^3. Considering the SK 32's length (36,45 m) and beam (7,80 m), you will have a draft of about 20 cm (it's not quite right, because the length and beam decrease somewhat due to the shape of the hull when you go further down the hull). Considering the dimensions, 20cm is indeed not that much so you get that 'barley touching the water' impression.

[Carthaginian]

Can anyone explain me how that hull can have so little draft?

Uhm... Empty hull? With lots of air inside? Made of aluminum which has a density of 2,800 kg/m3 while steel is in the 7,400-8,000 kg/m3 range?

Yes of course. But it looks like the hull is barley touching the water.

Also, she's TOTALLY light from the looks of the video... nothing aboard but the deckplates!
That would mean that she's not even going to be floating at 'light' displacement marks; she's only floating at the level for the hull's true displacement.

And yes, it would be awesome to have a yacht like the vessel you show there... Heck, if I could get something like that, my crazy Southron self might just take her off to the Gulf of Aden, pick up some 12.7mm Russians and a few RPGs at a weapons bazaar and start offering escort services to freighters! :D Who wants to go pirate hunting?

This is one of the type of boats I am seriously considering converting for a houseboat- it was only $35,000 but there was no real way for me to afford that ATM. Such a vessel would only be suited for river cruising, but in North America, that alone can get one most anywhere worth visiting.

http://www.boatquest.com/photos/2BoatImage156049.Jpg

[Walter]

Put a few MGs on it and it is ready to join the Brown Water Navy. :D

[Nobody]

Ever read this? It's about strange ship names.
http://forum-marinearchiv.de/smf/index.php/topic,14966.msg166912.html#msg166912

I just couldn't stop grinning.

[Walter]

Oh dear... the Cambridge University Naval Training Squadron.  :o

Great piece to read. ;D

[snip]

almost got the laptop in a spray of juice. good read

[Carthaginian]

Now, THAT was funny!
One has to imagine the King- who had to approve all the ships' names- reading the list and picturing these two little men continually quarreling over names, and coming up with  crazier and crazier names just to spite each other.