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The article didn't address it so I'll just ask: why? Why do you need to build a flipping (no pun intended) ship? Couldn't they have just as easily built a tal

The article didn't address it so I'll just ask: why? Why do you need to build a flipping (no pun intended) ship? Couldn't they have just as easily built a tall floating rig that could be dragged by the same tugboat? Why do they even need to change to boat form? Can't they tug it when it's vertical? Drilling platforms are stable floating structures aren't they? They consist of a stable floating upper platform.

ryanmarsh 9y ago
Because the oil industry was already having these built. It was probably just easier and cheaper to buy one "off the shelf" so to speak rather than have a custom ship designed for this purpose. Drilling platforms are large and not designed to regularly circumnavigate the oceans. They float but they're shitty boats.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  It's a one off designed to measure sound waves and bearing at the same time. https://scripps.ucsd.edu/ships/flip/history https://scripps.ucsd.edu/ships/flip/history
- cr1895 9y ago
  Not in the 60s, as far as I'm aware. Same principles but widespread use of spars and semi-subs came later.
Retric 9y ago
You can tow a ship a lot faster than you can move a drilling platform. But, basically this is a drilling platform. Going horizontal vastly reduces drag, but it's not really designed to be used as a ship.
masklinn 9y ago
> Couldn't they have just as easily built a tall floating rig that could be dragged by the same tugboat? Why do they even need to change to boat form? Can't they tug it when it's vertical? Gigantic drag, low stability, and inability to enter ports and harbours when you have a 100ft draft. > Drilling platforms are stable floating structures aren't they? They consist of a stable floating upper platform. "Truss and spars" platforms usually have the truss floated on its side and the modules mounted on top of it once it's been floated and ballasted in place. Semi-subs can be tugged into place but that requires big tugs (multiple ~20khp units) and is very, very slow, to attain the speeds at which you can tow RP FLIP (7~10kt) you need a heavy lift ship. These are not the kind of expenses oceanography can usually afford. Not to mention the semi-sub itself would be significantly more expensive than RP FLIP was, a semi-sub is more than half a billion, FLIP's original cost was about half a million.
- masklinn 9y ago
  (or about 5 million current adjusted for inflation, 2 orders of magnitude below a semi-submersible platform)
cmsmith 9y ago
I'll take a guess: 300 feet is awfully deep. If you believe that 300 feet of draft is needed to get the stability they need, then this seems like the only way to get it. There are no ports, or even semi-protected waters, where you could build, launch, or dock something like that without it running aground. Some quick research shows that the deepest draft on oil platforms is in the range of 25m (1/4 of the FLIP ship), and further that this ship was built a decade before the development of floating oil platforms.

ryanmarsh 9y ago

Because the oil industry was already having these built. It was probably just easier and cheaper to buy one "off the shelf" so to speak rather than have a custom ship designed for this purpose. Drilling platforms are large and not designed to regularly circumnavigate the oceans. They float but they're shitty boats.

maxerickson 9y ago
It's a one off designed to measure sound waves and bearing at the same time. https://scripps.ucsd.edu/ships/flip/history https://scripps.ucsd.edu/ships/flip/history
cr1895 9y ago
Not in the 60s, as far as I'm aware. Same principles but widespread use of spars and semi-subs came later.

Retric 9y ago

You can tow a ship a lot faster than you can move a drilling platform. But, basically this is a drilling platform. Going horizontal vastly reduces drag, but it's not really designed to be used as a ship.

masklinn 9y ago

> Couldn't they have just as easily built a tall floating rig that could be dragged by the same tugboat? Why do they even need to change to boat form? Can't they tug it when it's vertical? Gigantic drag, low stability, and inability to enter ports and harbours when you have a 100ft draft. > Drilling platforms are stable floating structures aren't they? They consist of a stable floating upper platform. "Truss and spars" platforms usually have the truss floated on its side and the modules mounted on top of it once it's been floated and ballasted in place. Semi-subs can be tugged into place but that requires big tugs (multiple ~20khp units) and is very, very slow, to attain the speeds at which you can tow RP FLIP (7~10kt) you need a heavy lift ship. These are not the kind of expenses oceanography can usually afford. Not to mention the semi-sub itself would be significantly more expensive than RP FLIP was, a semi-sub is more than half a billion, FLIP's original cost was about half a million.

masklinn 9y ago
(or about 5 million current adjusted for inflation, 2 orders of magnitude below a semi-submersible platform)

cmsmith 9y ago

I'll take a guess: 300 feet is awfully deep. If you believe that 300 feet of draft is needed to get the stability they need, then this seems like the only way to get it. There are no ports, or even semi-protected waters, where you could build, launch, or dock something like that without it running aground. Some quick research shows that the deepest draft on oil platforms is in the range of 25m (1/4 of the FLIP ship), and further that this ship was built a decade before the development of floating oil platforms.