sean neill wrote: > It surprised me that modern diesel/electric azimuth drive cruise > ships handle rather like an over sized narrowboat, ie the most stable > point > was at the stern and NOT near the centre, like old ships. The bow was > crashing around quite a bit, which made if "interesting" > -- > Neil Arlidge - NB Earnest - Shannon Reg 7410 > > My guess is that this is because the bows have an excessive flare - > WW2 aircraft carriers used to suffer from slamming under the bow > flare. I don't know if cruise ships have so much flare because it is > thought to look nicer or to balance the excessive superstructure. > > Slamming can also occur because the hull is shallow-drafted and I > guess this may be the explanation for modern narrowboats. > > Sean
What was also interesting, was that the "ships log" claimed that we were still doing around 20 knots through the swell, so the stern seemed really "dug in". The prevailing sea was three quarters on to the bow and the stabilizers were doing a good job. In reality, though I mention slamming, it was nothing like a 6/7 we had, stern on in an older conventional drive ship (Thomson Destiny / ex Sun Cruises Sunbird/ ex Royal Caribbean Song Of America), where passengers were soon banned from the stern, as they were becoming airbourn, if they did not hold on (fun!) -- Neil Arlidge - NB Earnest - Shannon Reg 7410 Read about the TNC Irish travels at: http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/Tour_07/index.html
