Date:         Fri, 6 Apr 2001 01:38:18 +1200
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: the most bizarre idea in the world
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>Actually it doesn't sound too bad.  "Almost a mile long and 750 feet wide"
>you could bring your Quattro with and take a few laps around the deck each
>day.  Its certainly big enough for a decent road course.
>Jan Lahtonen

I knew construction of 250000tonne superliners is well under way (weigh?),
with 500000tonne ships firmly planned, but this one takes the cake... in
fact all the cakes.

OVC*: this ship could carry a LOT of Vanagons to people around the world
for VERY cheap shipping costs!

The website has no specifications whatsoever. The designers have no
knowledge of shipbuilding, and as shipbuilders/designers are the only ones
with the required expertise in building such a monster out of steel (or any
other material(s)), it's criminal that no shipbuilders are involved. This
would be the largest artificial object in existence (made by man, anyway).

Hurricane sidewinds... have they had done simulations for this? This thing
is a 1.6km-long, at least 108m-tall (above water) 200m-wide wall sitting on
the water surface. How badly will strong winds cause it to list? how will
they anchor it against even soft breezes? do they realize that even on calm
days there will be a strong wind blowing across the flightdeck?

Modular design has segmental weaknesses. It may, under severe stress, break
into sections. No doubt these will be "designed" to remain afloat (remember
the Titanic) separately.

This scale is an area outside current knowledge of ship structure and
response to natural stresses. Computer modelling, even by those who know
what they're doing (and I suspct the people involved don't fall into this
category) will be entering new territory.

The harmonics of hurricane waves, or even mere ocean swells, are capable of
setting-up destructive resonations in supertanker hulls. What can be
expected of a 1.6km segmented hull??

Mind, if offered a FREE suite with FREE maintenance, i'd have to think hard
about turning it down...



*Obligatory Vanagon Content

Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin, New Zealand
fax 64 (3) 479-7527
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
VW van (something for every man), Toyota diesel & seashell nut
*Even though Mac Users may be only 10% of the market,
always remember that we are the TOP 10%
*A 733mHz Mac G4 is 45% faster than a 1500mHz Pentium 4