Well I have learned that the list is because of the heavy deck I had made! Once I removed the deck, she floated perfectly! Looks like no ballest will be needed. The batteries and CO2 is all the ballast she needs. I hope to hook up all of the wires this week and take her for a test sailing in the bathtub. With a new deck she should be ready for our next sailing on the 2nd of Aug.
I have noticed that we have straied from the main topic here. As I have been watching the boats on the water. It seems that the smaller and more manuverable the better! As that big battlewagon closes in for a shot, it just turns tail and exposes that armored fantail. So the best convoy ship is one that can turn VERY quickly!
Also with the LST, almost no draft! It is almost inpossible to get a hit under the water line. We had one sailing around at our last meet.
im kind of waitinf for some money and an email from tugboat, but then im going for it, and im gonna run around up here in the northEast with my ARL-11 , the USS Poseiden
An Iowa Class Skipper stated that the LST should not be legal, because it does not have the 1 inch of penetrable area below the water line!
When a ship has less than an inch of draft, you use the 45 degree rule (or in my club, the 60 degree rule). I believe most clubs have an explanation of the 45 degree rule in their rulebook, but probably the clearest explanation is available in my club's rulebook in the construction section: http://www.westernwarshipcombat.com/images/stories/WWCC_Rules2008.doc Any club that does NOT have a 45 degree rule or similar has a big problem, because there are quite a few boats with less than 1" of draft. My club added its 60 degree rule several years ago, after a big debate pondside.
If there's not much draft, they'll just have to settle for on's, aboves, and adding enough bearings to push those holes underwater I think that when the rules were written, ships like the Cowee had not pushed the really little boats into the fray. So, for a large part, I think that ships that are cutting edge and unusual are going to have some people wrangling over em. The big thing for concern is inherent unfair combat advantage... I don't think a convoy LST is ANY danger to an Iowa Nor invulerable to getting hit and sunk. The fellow I've seen build an LST for big gun cut the windows right down to the bend before the flat keel at the bottom of the ship... can't get any lower than that! But Will has not posted many pictures of the 'bitty boat Knight, you should prod him to add onto the discussion on the other thread here... Mike
Yes, it is Will's LST that I have been talking about. If he is at the cook out tomorrow, I will bring it up.
