Pirate Mercs

[susho]

As idiotic (sorry) is the idea of using a hundred years old gunboat with a range of a few miles, because it "looks cool".

haha, it's a good reason for the greek navy though
prates use motherships to increase their range. But i agree, you probably need more to cover for the whole area.

if you got money, I would say DAMEN FAST CREW SUPPLIER 3307.
they do 22-30 knots, have some nice deck space, 40 tons cargo capacity(extra fuel) and can be fitted with 2000-3500KW engines.
they probably have a nice range , and seaworthyness.
hydrofoils are good as long they're in the water. Surface piercing aren't that comfortable.

When looking for a new vessel there are better than crew supply boats.
Though Damen is not the worst choice in general. They are the ones with the "axbow" right?

[powerabout]

Submarine has got to be the go, bullit proof, fast and other than food you dont need to come to the surface for 11 years.....
or so the crew of a US sub told me when we moored with one on a dock once.
( they change the reactor every 11 years )

Originally Posted by powerabout

( they change the reactor every 11 years )

And keep the crew for another 11?

They become the new reactor.
The Hauk it is then. Draw up a plan - be sure to include money to have the "dent" fixed and new tanks. As soon as you get a viable plan, and don't do it yourself (hire a finance major from a local university - I would have done this thing for relative pennies when I was in school), do the same thing with a marketing major to sell your product to Maersk, or whoever, and get them onboard. Start-up is going to be astronomical and you need deep pockets. Bear in mind, I am not talking about fuel because that is a small part of it- just go slow when you have nowhere to be in a hurry.
I have two containerships that frequent here. They are both 27 knots and I assumed containor ships were just that fast. Richard says 24, I think, and he has a lot more experience around them than I. Twenty four puts this within reason. Remember, the shippers are going to want to "bundle" their ships to save money and help deter pirates. That means that the convoy will travel at the slowest denominator - maybe twenty so the Maersk Tortuga doesn't get left behind. You can start a convoy actually maybe an hour ahead of a faster ship and end the thing a half-hour behind or so behind. The ship master understands and that keeps him from slowing down. The silhouette of this ship will become known and avoided from two hours away.

[Marco1]

Originally Posted by apex1

Thats what they need.

The only problem I see with this boat is that it does not have a rail around the foredeck to lean on whilst fishing.

[powerabout]

Maersk
have been slowing their ships down...to create demand for more ships and it also saves plenty of fuel
I was crossing a big container ship in the top of the red sea once and called it up to explain what I was going to do( we were the stand on vessel but only 40m so planned to keep clear) English Captain on a Maersk box ship, he said thanks we are in a hurry doing 31kts to make the north convoy...fast eh!!!!

and makes it easier for pirates to get on board...not sure if they thought of that?

Originally Posted by Marco1

The only problem I see with this boat is that it does not have a rail around the foredeck to lean on whilst fishing.

And no swimplatform either.

[powerabout]

Just been chatting with some offshore crew that have been working in Nigeria
Nigeria where no news gets out but all of them have stories about crew being murdered.
Not one week goes by without someone asking you if you have a spare body bag for some other vessel.
Many vessels used to motor out to sea half the night and then back in the morning to start work at daylight.
Wages only 20-30% higher.
BUT
Refusing to participate in corruption will get you killed
Participating in the corruption and then someone tells someone else you have cash on board gets you killed.
One guy told me an accomodation barge called up to ask for some clothes as a team of thugs robbed all the crew and took all the clothes and 150 crews belongings
Another story, vessel pirated while guards staying on their cabins???

[Boston]

Almost all the factory farmed animals at some establishments are fed there own dead, ground, dried and the slurry added into there feed. It's completely illegal as far as I know, but companies get fined for it often enough that its obviously a common practice.

nice eh
I'll take a range animal any day but this factory farmed stuff you can keep
nnnnooooo thanks

B

[gunship]

im not really sure about the weather conditions down there, but i know that the swedish navy made some rather heavily V-shaped torpedo boats that could cruise through pretty heavy seas, all you needed to do was to have courage enough to set at least 30 knots and put your raingear on.

Originally Posted by gunship

im not really sure about the weather conditions down there, but i know that the swedish navy made some rather heavily V-shaped torpedo boats that could cruise through pretty heavy seas, all you needed to do was to have courage enough to set at least 30 knots and put your raingear on.

I mentioned that already,

there is no weather in that region. Around Sokotra you find adverse conditions sometimes. Between Salalah and Djibouti it is mainly calm, sometimes very hazy, and always uncomfortable hot. But weather is rarely found there.
And these torpedo boats are NOT V shaped in a way we understand deep V! They are just overforced displacement vessels, not planing! Yes they can operate in nasty conditions of course. They are designed to survive the North Sea in Winter!

Lookup the youtube clip about "Aries Lord" in really bad weather, and you know what North Sea in Winter means. And that was just a average storm there, nothing uncommon.

Regards
Richard

[Boston]

the engines in these things are also used in freight trains
definitely have the power to force a hull form beyond its hull speed
shape in the face of 7400 hp is almost irrelevant

[powerabout]

here's your escorting service area
http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?opt...map&Itemid=261

[powerabout]

Meat keeps longer
but Dijbouti has great fresh vegies even though it looks like it has never rained there. ( all comes from Ethiopia)
so you'll be able to have vegans on board as well