Saturday, February 7, 2015

Just Slightly Beyond My Boat Budget

A US Navy Warship, Yours For $180,000: "AT THIS PRICE, THIS GREAT VESSEL IS GOING TO SELL FAST!!!!! CALL TODAY!" says actual listing for a US Navy ship.


But it does have lots of deck space and plenty of rail for rod holders.
When Lockheed Martin (of SR-71 Blackbird fame) finished designing and building, the US Navy launched the Sea Slice in 1996, built to dart around lakes and near-shore water bodies.

The design is a descendent of the small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) class of ship. Regular SWATHs have two cylindrical pontoons for hulls, both of which sit below the water's surface. That way, it avoids the speed- and stability-sapping waves on the surface. The Sea Slice here has four shortened teardrop-shaped hulls in total — two on each side, in lines behind each other. That design reduces drag even more, and reduces the wake.

To get the 190-ton craft moving at a manufacturer's claimed top speed of 35 mph, the Sea Slice has two MTU diesel engines and two 180-kW Caterpillar generators that give it 6,964 horsepower. Its fuel tanks hold 11,112 gallons — at a little over $2.30 a gallon for diesel, that's about $25,500 for a fill-up. That'll sting, but think of how much you're already saving off the sticker price.

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