BEYOND THE HORIZON

 BOAT NEWS

The wealthy have decided that they not only want to race with carbon fiber boats that merely have a foil that changes the wingspan of the boat to create greater lift, and a canting keel, but they wanted something for their semi-cruise yachts, hence, the Maxis. These races are for the behemoths of 80-feet to 100-feet. They created the International Maxi Association (IMA) to make rules and regulations for the beasts which include 155 member boats.

            Writers criticize these boats because they are exhausting to sail and require rapid movement of the crew since they sail best at a 45-degree heel. At the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup race, boats could easily attain 35-knot speeds but they are difficult to keep on their foils going upwind.

            Cost is a consideration, supposedly. Owners will spend about $750,000 for a five-day race in the Med. Remind me to feel sad for these folks.

GRAY FLEET

             In a recent edition of the Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS, the authors reflected that the F-35, the jet that was supposed to save tremendous amounts of money since versions would be used by the Marines, Navy, and Air Force, was very vulnerable to electronic interference since the jet was operating with virtually totally digital input. The lower-end FA-18 was more mechanical and less vulnerable to electronic attack. It costs about $33,000 per hour of flight time for the sophisticated F-35, however, the FA-18 costs about $10,507 per hour per flight. 

            This is hardly of interest to boating people except that our naval philosophy is carrier oriented with the other ships designed as carrier protectors. I harken back to the U.S. of 1940 when we believed that the instrument of war was the battleship with the carrier acting as the shield for the dreadnaughts. The concept sank in a single day at Pearl Harbor. Are we reliving that same scenario?

            With 11 Congressionally mandated carrier task forces, our vulnerability lies in the potential loss of the carriers. Down a few carriers, we would have to turn to, what I believe is the future of naval warfare, the submarines, of which we have plenty.

Our subs are stealthy, speedy, and dangerously armed with everything from ballistic missiles to cruise missiles to torpedoes, to say nothing about ship-to-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.

            In my science-fiction mind and reading the constant barrage of information and education by a small naval community, I think the uncrewed vessels will be the most effective and efficient method of tactical weaponry. We already have such vehicles in the air, on the surface, and underwater ranging in size from the small handheld drones of the Marine Corps to full-sized jets that can survive greater G-forces than a human pilot, to the various-sized surface and underwater “ships”. Small, raft-sized satellite communicated floats that send constant data on sea temperature, salinity, weather conditions, and ship and submarine movements to safe locations back in the U.S. These are inexpensive and, used by the hundreds, effective digital watchdogs may be more important than any F-35 or carrier platform.

In our current Navy, we have 8 full or four-star admirals. All but one is white and male. Of the 26 Vice Admirals, one is a woman and two men are African Americans. 48 people hold Rear Admiral (Upper Half) ranks and 3 are women and 1 is Black. 86 hold Rear Admiral (Lower Half) positions of which 2 are women and 2 are Black. 14 of 15 Rear Admirals in the Acquisitions Community are white men. Rear Admirals in the Information Warfare Community consist of 7 women and 15 white males and 1 Black female. In the other areas of the Navy such as Health Care, there are more women and one more Black.

            The Navy has a history replete of racism and sexism going back to John Paul Jones. Many current flag officers still fume about allowing women into Annapolis. Black Officers need to be men of color only in their skin tones, otherwise, they better act pretty WASPish or they will never have a career in the Navy. Interestingly to note, blacks makeup over 17% of enlisted males, and women are about 30% of the enlisted crews. The sundry Chiefs of Naval Operations proffer little more than lip service to integration.

            The LEWIS B. PULLER (ESB-3) is an all-purpose expeditionary sea base that looks like a freighter that had the middle cut out, put some upright I beam stilts where the middle was, and a flight deck placed on the stilts. It serves as a center for airborne mine countermeasures, and underwater mine countermeasures, and operates uncrewed air and surface vehicles, and special operations.

            The PULLER (named after Marine Corps legend Chesty Puller) is 785’ long, 164’ abeam, and has a draft of 40’ displacing 90,000 tons. Her large landing deck has 4 rotary-wing landing spots. She is crewed by a combination of civilian mariners in charge of ship maintenance, cranes, davits, and fueling while the white hats air ops, ordinance, and boat operations. 

            Unfortunately, this ship is slow (maximum speed is 12 knots, lacks uncrewed intelligence systems, and required operational capabilities and projected operational environment (ROC/POE) documents (whatever the hell that means).

ALLISIONS and COLLISIONS

            2022 ended with a big bang in Seget District waters, Sorong Regency, Southwest Papua, New Guinea when a landing craft sank. 8 people survived but 5 were missing. Not a good New Year’s Eve.

Milwaukee, WI is known for beer but on 3 January she was at the anchor site of the tow vessel, MICHIGAN, which sank while sitting idle. Now you know why Milwaukee is the City of Beer and not the City of Tow ships. 

MARK E. KUEBLER, a tugboat operating out of Corpus Christi, TX collided with the VLCC tanker, NISALAH, and promptly sank.

            MY PRINCESS, a ship flagged in Comoros, sank at Sharjah, UAE in the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, a couple of weeks later, LIEN SHEN FA, a fishing trawler from Taiwan went missing northeast of Mauritius on 20 February, it was found three days later capsized and the crew of 16 was missing. But sometimes ships are sunk intentionally. On the Ides of March, the DOLPHIN, an oil and gas research ship was sunk as an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico. 

MERCHANT FLEET

            California has long been the center of essential environmental concerns that complicate business, especially regarding shipping and transportation commerce. The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach assessed a $10 per TEU for the Clean Truck Program. The typical containership can carry up to 24,000 TEU’s and such a fee amount to tremendous amounts of money that is ultimately passed on to the consumer. Neither port can’t spend this as quickly as it comes in. I, on the other hand, can think of a plethora of things it could be spent on, namely hiring me as a consultant on how to spend money.

            The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) is pushing for a $100 per TEU tax for unspecified environmental programs. This would raise over a billion dollars per year. Again, I say, hire me as a consultant on environmental programs!

            The California Air Resource Board (CARB—a better acronym than SCAQMD) suggests that the ports ban diesel trucks. It is also supporting a mandate for Tier 3 or Tier 4 fuel on all harbor craft or zero emissions. Tier 3 fuels can reduce pollution from such crafts by approximately 80% without being detrimental to engine performance. Tier 4 fuel falls under regulations regarding particulate matter, Nitrogen Oxide, air toxins, and non-road vehicles without unreasonable economic restrictions. This mandate is for heavy-duty machinery such as a bulldozer, crane, generator, etc. 

ENVIRONMENT

            Twenty years ago, Fardin Olaei, a scientist working for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency studied fish and the impact of per and poly-fluoroalkyl pollutants. These “forever” compounds reside inside a body and cannot be broken down thus causing an abundant number of diseases including cancer. These chemicals have been found even in rainwater. But her primary concern was that a white bass caught near Minneapolis contained 29,600 parts per billion of these nasty reagents. This amounts to about 1,973,333 parts per billion times higher than considered safe for consumption.

            3M uses these forever chemicals in creating the sticky substances on their tapes and other products. 3M is also one of Minnesota’s leading employers. When the news of the study hit print, Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty immediately named Sheryl Corrigan to head the Minnesota Pollution Agency. She had managed the health functions at 3M. Fardin Olaei was forced out of her job, and she filed a lawsuit against the agency and against Corrigan. She won.

            Koch Refinery in Rochester has a long history of pollution violations. Under severe pressure from the public, the Environmental Protection Agency forced MPCA do something about Koch’s chronic insouciance regarding regulations. The agency fined Koch $8 million. Unfortunately, the MPCA remains lackadaisical about monitoring and enforcement of the laws and mandates.           

INLAND WATERWAYS

              Sometimes a yarn or tale of blarney is told so often that people start to believe it and respond accordingly. Sometimes that tale is intended. Several GOP political figures have ranted and raved about the lack of national security and the failures of the current administration. They were deeply concerned that our ports were insecure because many of the cranes used there are built in China. These wise political gurus maintain that all cranes and equipment at U.S. ports be only American built because God only knows what the Chinese are doing with those cranes.

            The American Association of Port Authorities General Counsel Cary Davis stated, “I like a good spy movie, but you need a smoking gun to make it a blockbuster and there’s no smoke in this story.” Worse, the demand for the removal of all Chinese-made cranes would drastically harm the supply chain and double costs.

            H.J. Res. 27 is a Republican maneuver to highly restrict the administration in rules over the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) claiming that this helps businesses, farmers, home builders, and private property owners. President Biden will certainly veto the bill should it make it through the Democrat Senate.

            The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is sending money into the much-needed improvement of locks and dams. The Water Resource Development Act, that was added to the National Defense Authorization Act, is a dynamic step for the waterway businesses. Congress has collected $125 million in diesel fuel tax but only spent $50 million of it over the last two years. One of the transportation businesses’ complaints is that inflation increases but the expenditures have not kept pace. 

If Shakespeare said, ”First, kill all the lawyers.” Then maybe we should start with those attorneys who are in politics!

DISASTERS

            Ever since the TITANIC, people seem fascinated with maritime sinkings. A modest look at the worst peacetime ship losses includes the 1495 loss of GRIBSHUNDEN, the flagship of King John of Denmark, that caught fire and went down with all the 150 crew southeast of Sweden. It was the largest loss on a single ship that had been recorded up to that time.

            In 1694 England’s third-rate ship was lost on 1 March off Gibraltar in a horrible storm. 498 crewmen were lost. Rather interestingly, two men survived! England had previously lost the WHITE SHIP carrying William Adelin, heir to the English throne and Duchy of Normandy. A drunken crew ran it aground with the loss of 300, the entire crew less the butcher who somehow lived. The loss plunged England into a Civil War for twenty years.

            The ancient wars were catastrophic vis a vis loss of crew. During the First Punic War, the Roman fleet was caught in a Mediterranean storm and lost its entire army of 90,000. Evidently, learning to swim was not high on the boot camp requirements 2500 years ago. 

            1400 years later the Mongol Empire’s Army, riding in their ships, ended up participating in a typhoon that sank the entire fleet and the 100,000 fighters.  Mongols also did not prepare for Abandon Ship drills.

            In 1588 the Spanish Armada tried to invade England. Between 15,000 and 20,000 men were lost either in battle or storm. The next year turned the tables on England whose fleet was sent to the Iberian Coast by Queen Elizabeth I. Sir Francis Drake and General Sir John Norrey managed to lose everything including 15,000 men.

            For the politically correct, the use of the word “men” is intentional since there is no evidence of women aboard these ships or within the mentioned armies. If you are offended by the use of this noun, blame the nuns.

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