Im sure this has been discussed and maybe Im just over looking it. Has anyone thought of 'water tight' compartments? Not the boxes used to keep things dry, but as a way of damage and flood control. If you can keep the water confined to three or four 'compartments' that drain into the water channel so the pump does not get as overwhelmed as fast, wouldnt that help survivability? This is not 'flotation' just a way of restricting the speed and amount of damage flood. Im sure the idea has its flaws such as water ballast and stability issues. I noticed a lot of guys run armor inside to keep shots from damaging sensitive equipment, what if there was a little wall that ran to each rib from that armor to make a little compartment? When a shot ripped open that area of the hull only that space would flood, as more compartments flood the ship would eventually sink.
oh the ships would sink. It would be an 'ice cube tray' effect. fill up a few and its ok, fill up some more and down she goes.
The ice cube tray is not leagal. Making a wall in the ship and drilling small holes in it so it's not completly water tight is not leagal either. The ships should be as open as possible to allow water flow from any area damaged.
While it's generally not legal in most circles/formats, with larger-scale vessels one could hypothetically avoid the use of blast shields along the inside of the entire hull, instead placing them exclusively around key equipment. Bulkheads constructed of a penetrable material and thus not shielded could subdivide the hull while installed bilge pumps could be restricted to a maximum total volumetric pumping capacity. Inboard-located watertight compartments could be utilized for holding specific volumes of water to bring the model down to its scale waterline without needing to add as much ballast as would otherwise be necessary. If such a rule change were to be considered, I'd look toward 1/96 or 1/72 scale combat for discussion on the idea.
This was the example we were given when dealing with drilling holes. Take a dixie cup and cut out the bottom. Pour some water in it. Now take another dixie cup and poke a small hole in the bottom, fill it up with water. Notice the difference (not trying to be sarcastic, just obvious). Take an NC and make the 4th ribs from the bow solid. Now drill holes to get around the compartment rule. Rip the balsa off from the ribs to the bow on both sides. You will be amazed to see that the ship won't sink. This changed a few captains minds on using solid ribs with holes near the bows.
I had thought about putting vertical baffles in my Vanguard to prevent waves inside from destabilizing her when filling up, but I was looking at using vertical walls attached to the dek going downwards to about 1.5"-2" off the bottom of the hull, not really any appreciable restriction of water flow for DC purposes, but just to stop surface waves inside the hull.
I take a lot of pride in not sinking 'early'... My I-boat sinks absolutely flat, even after it submerges. Hours and hours in the test basin and rearranging the internals and ballast.
Ahh, maybe it was Tim after Mexican that had to "rearranging the internals and ballast" of his gut. As a side not Clark, got the check. Thanks!
Ah... Lou, I remember what you're thinking of... I had some nastiness during Nats 06 when we were at the Dairy Queen. Glad the check got there
Has anyone tried strategically placing small chunks of foam to control the way a ship sinks? I've seen one merchant ship (Mehoshi Maru) with a big block of foam in the bow. Every time it sinks (which is quite often!), the ship goes down by the stern. The back end drops out, and drags the bow down. I am thinking of doing something similar, except to make my ship go down by the bow. I'm curious if anyone else has tried that, though.
