Random Picture Thread

That is a great video. Note to self: Canada is too cold for Floridians.

 

Summer time, night watch

 

Did the cruise out to Vanautu, saw this floating in the bay there, no, not the little white one in the foreground, the four-master. Can't see it properly on this jpeg, but its name appears to be Phocea.
Did a quick wikipedia search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phocea_(yacht) Apparrently it was built for a single-handed yatchsman (but it has a crew of 15).

 

I seem to recall one of the big yachting magazines did a writeup on her. If I am correct She was all hydrolically operated. Quite the piece of gear, but not so economical under power alone at 51 gal. an hour. Thats about $340 to $350. an hour at Canadian fuel prices. Thats like burning a weeks wages at minimum wage rates, per hour. So when this guy steps foot on shore in Canada and walks to the local coffee shop, his personal toy will burn as much in fuel in one hour as the waitress behind the counter serving him makes in a week. Perpective can be frightening ---

 

Last I heard she was impounded in the Pacific for gun running .

 

Well if accurate -- we know where he was getting his fuel money-- guns outward bound --- Maybe coffee for that coffee shop inward ---

 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/391522-random-transportation-pictures-862.html

 

I'll take the car... keep the boat though. Looks like an ice scoop

 

According to internet reports Phocea sold for $75m. In the light of her cost, is $350/hour so bad?

For comparison my car costs about $8/hour to run and is worth maybe $20,000 so it would take 2500 hours to run up a fuel bill equal to its value. For the Phocea that would take over 20,000 hours. Sounds like a really economical little runaround to me . . . perspective is in the eye of the beholder!

 

I think it would be more realistic to compare the operating cost of vessels or vehicles by passenger miles traveled per unit of fuel, payload carried -- or just about anything besides sales price or blue book value divided by fuel costs. By that measure, the more a boat sells for the more 'efficient' it somehow becomes.... and a big honking private limousine would be rated more efficient than my compact pickup truck.

 

Right on, well said.

 

A recent study conducted by Harvard University found that the average American walks
about 900 miles a year. Another study by the American Medical Association found that
Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. This means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.

 

Next year the fuel consumption will go up, no doubt, as we will be walking more.

 

By the same measure the limousine (all seats occupied) is probably more efficient than your compact truck! But it's all about purpose. I doubt you get a big demand from high-school kids and couples getting married for rides in your truck, for example.

However, if we must factor-in passenger capacity nothing beats the efficiency of a large ship, but I doubt the sort of folk who buy multi-million dollar yachts give a monkey's armpit about efficiency . . .


Speaking of what folk buy, I just bought a new minivan, being utterly free of delusions of grandeur and having no self-image as some kind of antique stud. I noted the manufacturer put the basic model on the market with a standard shift. Now who buys a standard-shift minivan? What were they thinking? These things are intended for soccer moms and elderly gents with elderly doggies wanting a ride to the off-leash dog park! Should I prepare for hordes of nubile blondes cooing over the cup-holders? Did they visualize teenagers buying minivans for street racing? Are they going to bring out a sleek convertible? I questioned the salesman who admitted the dealership had sold one - just one - standard shift minivan since the model came out, out of several hundred probably.

 

A comment worth quoting.