3 ms·

Honestly, I would have just towed it out empty, flipped it vertical, then loaded people on. That way, only one orientation needs to be supported at all.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago
That's what they wanted to do initially but since everyone wanted to be on the flipped ship when it was flipped they refitted it to house people. At that point you may as well find a way cram them in when it's horizontal rather than incur the cost of bringing them out and back on a separate ship.
- QuercusMax 9y ago
  FLIP doesn't have engines, so it must be towed into place, so you have to have another ship out there in any case.
maxerickson 9y ago
There's accommodation for 16 people. I imagine that means something like 4 or 5 showers/toilets/sinks. Probably more sinks, it would be interesting to see the actual numbers of duplicated fixtures. I didn't find anything with a brief search.
fcbrooklyn 9y ago
I imagine it might be quite dangerous to transfer people from one ship to the other in heavy seas, and in the article they were talking about seas of 30 feet.
- cr1895 9y ago
  It can be dangerous. If you want to see something cool search for Ampelmann and Billy Pugh. I haven't been on an Ampelmann but I have transferred with the crane-lifted basket and it's really fun. But they sure as hell are not moving between ships in nasty, dangerous sea conditions. At least not if they can help it.
- jlg23 9y ago
  > I imagine it might be quite dangerous to transfer people from one ship to the other in heavy seas The article states that daily transfers of people was the M.O. initially and that they only installed sleeping quarters so experiments could be run 24/7.
masklinn 9y ago
That means you need an additional ship when towing it into position, and more time is wasted transitioning people to and fro. Here everybody boards in port and they can do on-board setup during towing.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago

That's what they wanted to do initially but since everyone wanted to be on the flipped ship when it was flipped they refitted it to house people. At that point you may as well find a way cram them in when it's horizontal rather than incur the cost of bringing them out and back on a separate ship.

QuercusMax 9y ago
FLIP doesn't have engines, so it must be towed into place, so you have to have another ship out there in any case.

maxerickson 9y ago

There's accommodation for 16 people. I imagine that means something like 4 or 5 showers/toilets/sinks. Probably more sinks, it would be interesting to see the actual numbers of duplicated fixtures. I didn't find anything with a brief search.

fcbrooklyn 9y ago

I imagine it might be quite dangerous to transfer people from one ship to the other in heavy seas, and in the article they were talking about seas of 30 feet.

cr1895 9y ago
It can be dangerous. If you want to see something cool search for Ampelmann and Billy Pugh. I haven't been on an Ampelmann but I have transferred with the crane-lifted basket and it's really fun. But they sure as hell are not moving between ships in nasty, dangerous sea conditions. At least not if they can help it.
jlg23 9y ago
> I imagine it might be quite dangerous to transfer people from one ship to the other in heavy seas The article states that daily transfers of people was the M.O. initially and that they only installed sleeping quarters so experiments could be run 24/7.

masklinn 9y ago

That means you need an additional ship when towing it into position, and more time is wasted transitioning people to and fro. Here everybody boards in port and they can do on-board setup during towing.