Coolboats to admire

[Liquid]

Isn't wood a renewable resource?

 

[NZK]

Bit of a Dykstra convention going on here.
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This boat, Hetairos, is one of the coolest yachts on the water - it's a full carbon hull and it will GO. They regularly sail at over 20 knots for extended periods when on passage and have clipped 30+ on multiple occasions.
The gear on this boat is huge - they have flying headsails on custom furlers rated to 40T.

It's a super yacht that actually sails and goes places.

On a side note, Kamaxitha gets extra cool points for having a proper lounge bar on board...

 

[Tylo]

This boat, Hetairos, is one of the coolest yachts on the water - it's a full carbon hull and it will GO. They regularly sail at over 20 knots for extended periods when on passage and have clipped 30+ on multiple occasions.
The gear on this boat is huge - they have flying headsails on custom furlers rated to 40T.

It's a super yacht that actually sails and goes places.

On a side note, Kamaxitha gets extra cool points for having a proper lounge bar on board...

Love that thing.
One of my favorite superyacht videos features Hetairos sailing into Hobart. She looks to be hauling ass. Also, maybe it's just me but she doesn't look that big until you notice the people on the aft deck. The music isn't really to my taste but that's what the mute button is for.



Stunner.

 

[SloopJonB]

Isn't wood a renewable resource?

Not when you cut it faster than it grows.

 

[Diarmuid]

Isn't wood a renewable resource?

Yes. But orangutans aren't. Very often the difficulty with timber (or any extractive resource) isn't the logging or oil or gold per se -- it's what happens to the local people & the countryside in the getting of it, and where the profit ends up. In Borneo, it's the unique island fauna. In Myanmar, it's a military dictatorship busy with ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. Even Brazil, which provides most of the world's plantation-grown teak (true teak, planted there in the 30s and 40s), has issues with illegal clear-cutting and assaults on indigenous peoples. It's a problematic wood, for all its excellent properties. Re-decking enormous, non-functioning battleships with it, whoo. We can hope it's salvaged or upcycled or new/old stock.

Kauri is another revered ship-building wood, but unless you are hauling away blowovers or pulling downed logs out of peat bogs, it's really hard to imagine building a new boat with it. From Wiki:

Heavy logging, which began around 1820 and continued for a century, has considerably decreased the number of kauri trees. It has been estimated that before 1840, the kauri forests of northern New Zealand occupied at least 12,000 square kilometres .... By 1900, less than 10 per cent of the original kauri survived. By the 1950s this area had decreased to about 1,400 square kilometres in 47 forests depleted of their best kauri. It is estimated that today, there is 4 per cent of uncut forest left in small pockets.

I use a few fast-growing, (historically) non-endangered and (alleged) responsibly-sourced exotic trees in my woodworking business. But ten years after one of these catches on, trouble follows. For awhile, khaya (African mahogany), Spanish cedar, and purpleheart were sustainable & under-utilized species. Then they were not. We'd all love a backyard deck made of old-growth redwood, but it's just not on.

 

[Bull City]

On the teak decks for battleships...

I was in the Destroyer Navy. I don't think there was a molecule of teak on my ship. Weather decks were deck gray over red lead topped with non-skid.

These ships are museums, and the use of teak for authenticity on such a vast scale strikes me as an irresponsible folly.

Also interesting that there are varying opinions regarding the wisdom of teak decks on cruising sailboats.

WTFDIK?

 

[Bull City]

Yes. But orangutans aren't. Very often the difficulty with timber (or any extractive resource) isn't the logging or oil or gold per se -- it's what happens to the local people & the countryside in the getting of it, and where the profit ends up. In Borneo, it's the unique island fauna. In Myanmar, it's a military dictatorship busy with ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. Even Brazil, which provides most of the world's plantation-grown teak (true teak, planted there in the 30s and 40s), has issues with illegal clear-cutting and assaults on indigenous peoples. It's a problematic wood, for all its excellent properties. Re-decking enormous, non-functioning battleships with it, whoo. We can hope it's salvaged or upcycled or new/old stock.

Kauri is another revered ship-building wood, but unless you are hauling away blowovers or pulling downed logs out of peat bogs, it's really hard to imagine building a new boat with it. From Wiki:


I use a few fast-growing, (historically) non-endangered and (alleged) responsibly-sourced exotic trees in my woodworking business. But ten years after one of these catches on, trouble follows. For awhile, khaya (African mahogany), Spanish cedar, and purpleheart were sustainable & under-utilized species. Then they were not. We'd all love a backyard deck made of old-growth redwood, but it's just not on.

Another is Live Oak, which grows in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. It is very slow growing. It was harvested in the early 19th century for the construction of the USS Constitution and her other sister frigates (Six Frigates by Ian Toll). Now, only blow-overs can be harvested (Watch Episode 19 of Tally Ho - her new frames are live oak.)

 

[kinardly]

On the teak decks for battleships...

I was in the Destroyer Navy. I don't think there was a molecule of teak on my ship. Weather decks were deck gray over red lead topped with non-skid.

These ships are museums, and the use of teak for authenticity on such a vast scale strikes me as an irresponsible folly.

Also interesting that there are varying opinions regarding the wisdom of teak decks on cruising sailboats.

WTFDIK?

Bull, I agree, it's an outrageous waste of a limited, beautiful resource to have teak on a museum piece. Yellow pine would probably work just fine.

I did my 3rd class NROTC cruise on the USS Galveston (CLG3). She had teak decks forward of the bridge around the 6" main guns but steel decks under 5"/38 guns. The main guns were in armored turrets rotating on cylindrical steel barbettes with armor plating surrounding them. The steel decks weren't plated to the armor b/c the recoil could oil can them. The purpose of the teak was to cover up the gaps and provide a workable deck area. Your destroyer probably had 5" gun mounts which, with considerably less recoil, could be bolted directly to steel decks.

 

[Dervish]

That's a big state to put teak decks on. Try the veal. Tip your waitress. I’ll be here all week.

FFY

 

[Bull City]

Your destroyer probably had 5" gun mounts which, with considerably less recoil, could be bolted directly to steel decks.

Yes, 5"/54 Rapid Fire mounts. Even though I was the gunnery division officer, I don't recall the overall structure (early 1970's), however, the hoist and loading system went down two or three levels to the magazines.

 

[accnick]

Another is Live Oak, which grows in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. It is very slow growing. It was harvested in the early 19th century for the construction of the USS Constitution and her other sister frigates (Six Frigates by Ian Toll). Now, only blow-overs can be harvested (Watch Episode 19 of Tally Ho - her new frames are live oak.)

Live oaks are quite common where I live in FL. There is one in my backyard that is probably about 150 years old, and has a primary trunk diameter of about 1 metre (39"). One this size is called a specimen tree, and you need a permit, and a good reason for it, before you can cut a tree that size.

I designed and built a fairly large addition to my house around that tree, with input from an arborist on how to design and build without damaging the root system.

There are probably literally several thousands of similar-sized live oaks in our little town.

There are a fair number of blow-overs after any substantial hurricane. We certainly keep a weather eye on the one that towers over most of our house. I had it limbed of deadwood and excess secondary growth last year. The big bucket truck that came in for that job did a number on my lawn.

You are allowed to trim a specimen tree canopy by about 35% before needing a permit here.

 

[Jud - s/v Sputnik]

S/V Jonathon, current in Caleta Banner down near Cape Horn, assisting Golden Globe Race skipper Ian Herbert-Jones, in last place, who just had to pull in there after rounding the Horn, to sort out his damaged windvane steering. Turns out Jonathan was nearby, and helped with the repair - fortuitous to have a large, experienced Cape Horn charter boat nearby: I’m guessing it has a good tool inventory and a good selection assorted materials/fasteners on board!

 

[Diarmuid]

I wonder how the locusts (honey and black) would perform as boat deck material? They are slightly denser & heavier than teak, but also much harder & really, really rot resistant. Also a freaking weed tree with little commercial demand. My father had a dozen locust trees cut down on some property and literally could not give the wood away, not even as firewood. I know a few people have started building house decks and boardwalks from it. Might entail splinters or too much wood movement, tho. Like, I wouldn't want American (bald) cypress decks. Enormous lifting splinters that will put you in the hospital.

 

[Bull City]

Live oaks are quite common where I live in FL.

I grew up in Coral Gables, and they are common there. I still have a little wooden knife that I carved out of a small live oak limb (legally harvested!) when I was 9 or 10.

 

[SloopJonB]

On the teak decks for battleships...

I was in the Destroyer Navy. I don't think there was a molecule of teak on my ship. Weather decks were deck gray over red lead topped with non-skid.

These ships are museums, and the use of teak for authenticity on such a vast scale strikes me as an irresponsible folly.

Also interesting that there are varying opinions regarding the wisdom of teak decks on cruising sailboats.

WTFDIK?

I always thought that wood decks on warships was a stupid idea - did the Navy forget about "splinters" when they converted to iron & steel for hulls?

Wood decks on early Carriers? Just the thing when they got saturated with fuel & oil.

 

[Dervish]

////

These ships are museums, and the use of teak for authenticity on such a vast scale strikes me as an irresponsible folly.

/////

The U.S. has an extraordinary number of museum ships and they are major tourist attractions.

They are mostly funded by private non-profits that would not go to these measures if exact authenticity was not valued.

 

[accnick]

The U.S. has an extraordinary number of museum ships and they are major tourist attractions.

They are mostly funded by private non-profits that would not go to these measures if exact authenticity was not valued.

Re-builds of the USS Constitution required an awful lot of live oak.

 

[Bull City]

The U.S. has an extraordinary number of museum ships and they are major tourist attractions.

They are mostly funded by private non-profits that would not go to these measures if exact authenticity was not valued.

Dervish, I have been on a few of these, and I did not get the impression that authenticity was valued.

 

[accnick]

Dervish, I have been on a few of these, and I did not get the impression that authenticity was valued.

"Authenticity" is a relative term when it comes to museum ships. USS Constitution may not be authentic in a lot of ways, but the overall impression is pretty stunning.

 

[Bull City]

"Authenticity" is a relative term when it comes to museum ships. USS Constitution may not be authentic in a lot of ways, but the overall impression is pretty stunning.

Yeah, no Coke machines on Old Ironsides.

I toured the HMS Belfast on the Thames in London about 15 years ago. I thought it was well done.