From: Matt Whiting
Date: 8/19/2004 4:16 PM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

Juan Jimenez wrote:

Matt Whiting wrote in
:


The old wood sailing ships took a lot more beating on a...

I was talking about the hull hitting the ways. Hitting a wave at
15-20 knots is a LOT of force.


Excuse me, but who is truly clueless here? Since when did old wood sailing
ships travel at anywhere near 15-20 knots? Maybe down the business side of
a tsunami with a cat 5 hurricane tailwind...

Juan


I didn't say the ship was traveling at 15 - 20 knots. Ships have a
certain speed. Waves also have a certain speed. Ships also rise and
fall in heavy seas. It is the vector sum of all of these that
determines the impact velocity. If a ship is traveling at 8 knots, and
falls 8' into a wave that is traveling at 6 knots in the opposite
direction, the impact force is much greater than the just the 8 knots
speed of the ship. Is this really that hard a concept to understand?


Matt

It is to juan. If you really want to confuse him explain how a sailboat can
ride over a 400 kt tsunami in mid ocean without really noticing.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired